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Some people reported difficulties to download Constellation Studios movies, including the still popular Shamelady. Our server broke down. It should be repared very soon. We are sorry for the inconvenience. EDIT : website fixed !

The current news is the near completion of Picnic... but first of all the Charles Chaplin / A Day In The Park project ! The most famous tramp in the world is back... thanks to Constellation. Let’s not go into details about this work as its peculiarity can be explored on this page. We hope that you will appreciate that "Day in the Park" from Charles Chaplin.

A new great addition to our resume is coming this month : I Hate You written and directed by our in-house photography expert Frederique Remy is released for your viewing enjoyment. It is about a cheap movie’s filming going awry and the actors were more or less playing themselves — rather more than less. It is great, it is lively and we hope that you will enjoy it. I Hate You can be seen on this page.

Production is also moving forward for our Charles Chaplin tribute entitled A Day In The Park. Shooting first took place in April with only the tramp and it has resumed in June with the rest of the cast. Stay tuned !

Constellation Studios is proud to present its new production — and a first for us — a musical video. As a matter of fact we shot the famous French Rock band, Les Figurants (The Extras) and have coupled our footage with one of their tunes entitled "Paradis parallèle" (Parallel Paradise). The shoot took place at the end of 2007 and editing lasted until April 2008. You are invited to discover this new piece of work on this page.

The production of Shatterhand continued in April in Geneva, Switzerland and — by pure luck — it was about shooting all the scenes with the James Bond girls. Fun time of course.

On other fronts : very soon you will be able to watch our newest creation, I hate you, a short movie directed by Frederique Remy. Constellation is very busy at the moment as the following productions should be coming soon : "Picnic", "A Day In The Park", "W.C. Killers" and "Screen". Stay tuned !

With 80% of this movie shot last Summer, work has begun on editing the first pictures of Shatterhand, our second James Bond adventure. On other fronts, Constellation Studios has launched two new projects. For Les Figurants (The Extras), one of the great French rock band, we are producing a video. We also started production on a very trash short film entitled W.C. Killers, directed by Matthieu Pariot. Deep Down The Cellar, which we talk very little about, is still in the works.

This month’s great event is first and foremost the release of Shamelady. Our James Bond Tribute Film is now available. We are late but our bet was successful : it is released in 2007, a highly symbolic year for secret agent James Bond. You can download it from this site or watch it on youtube. The first reviews both in France and Anglo-Saxon countries have been rave. We could not be more thrilled. Some of the reviews can be read on the forums linked to this site and they reveal some incredible enthusiasm for the final result. Thank you all !

The work on the sound for Shamelady is moving forward, though it is slower than planned. It is a huge undertaking to make it sound totally professional and we underestimated this because of our lack of experience in the field. New sound effects have been added in the car chase, music cues have been changed and dubbing the entire film is 75% finished. Following a wave of enthusiasm among and outside the Shamelady crew, we have decided to renew the experience and have launched the production of a shorter and hopefully more spectacular second Bond 007 film. It is titled Shatterhand. The idea of making a Bond adventure with that title was born a long time ago. Our more pressing goal is to finalise and finish Shamelady, to be released in 2007. However we started shooting Shatterhand, to be released in 2008 to celebrate Ian Fleming’s hundredth birthday, in February 2007. we filmed a ski chase for the new pre-titles sequence. The main shoot will take place in July 2007. Once again it will be directed by Eric Saussine and production will be supervised by Philippe Crave and Pierre Rodiac.

A new trailer ("Action Trailer") is now available in Shamelady’s Downloads. Thanks to Satorious for compressing the video. There will be a Final Trailer. It will be made available some time before the film is released on the Internet. Though a few shots remain to be filmed, post production is now going full-speed ahead. The car chase’s editing has been reexamined for better efficiency. Its color scheme has been seriously worked on and it now offers an Aston Martin DB5 in all its glory. In the same way, a scene located in Irak has now its own peculiar color scheme. And hats off for Serge Rotelli, who has worked again for the production and created beautiful paintings and posters !

Constellation Studios shot a melancholy scene and two action scenes for Shamelady in the past 30 days. On September 30 a convertible Sunbeam Alpine - the model driven by Sean Connery in Dr. No (1962) - made a special guest appearance in front of our camera on the roads of Normandy and on D-Day beaches. On October 13 a small plane took off from Toussus-le-Noble airfield, south of Versailles, for a major action sequence that shall be completed with special effects. On November 17 a beautiful black Alfa Romeo driven by two killers terrorized the streets of Paris. Shooting is nearing conclusion on the project !

The shooting of the bigger scenes is over. We now dwelve into a string of smaller scenes and transition shots. A few special effects have been produced, with more to come. The greatest miracle - though it was one we kind of awaited - came from the first dubbing session for our two main characters, James Bond and his adversary Jacques Descarpes. Luc Le Clech dubbed himself but Serge Rotelli (Bond) was dubbed by Benoît Grimmiaux, whose voice was closer to what is expected for the character and whose professionalism was a sight to behold. His talent has suddenly lifted the level of our production. Many thanks to him !

The last big scenes for Shamelady have been shot. It happened during the long week-end of the Ascension. Thursday (Ascension Day) : we shot a car chase between Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 and one baddie’s Jaguar XJS. The team thanks Mr. Lamy who enabled us to get the legendary vehicle and piloted it for us, as well as Mr. Michaut, the owner of the Jaguar. These scenes were shot around the Château d’Esclimont near Rambouillet. Friday : the team is back in Château d’Esclimont’s gardens to shoot Bond’s first appearance in the film. Other backgrounds around the castle were used, this time for the ending of the film. Saturday : we shot the final mano-a-mano fight between Bond and the main villain. Porch House Manor in Chantilly — where A View To Kill was shot — had kindly authorized us to shoot in their living room. Sunday : Irina Bogomolova looped all her scenes. It was a wrap for her as well as for Serge Rotelli. We thank both of our Geneva actors who put so much enthusiasm into the production.

The Shamelady project continues to progress rapidly. The Main Credit sequence has just been edited, complete with all its special effects. We can proudly announce that the resulting three minutes are worthy of the official 007 movies. A teaser trailer is in the works and should be available on this site by next month. Production resumes in May with the shooting of Aston Martin scenes and the shooting of the final fight between Bond and the main villain, Descarpes. New pictures are also available.

Since the launch of the Constellation Studios website and the announcement of the Shamelady project, production on the James Bond fanfilm has started. Three quarters of the picture were already shot between August 2005 and February 2006 and editing has already begun. Special effects and sound effects are also in the works. The pre-credit sequence was also shot against a green screen. Reactions from fans everywhere are enthusiastic ! Coming soon : news, pictures, videos, everything to know about this promising fanfilm !

The website for Constellation Studios, which has been under construction for a few months, is now online ! This studio’s Internet pages and the films related to them aim at having its members’ works reach a wide audience. Up to this day, the films presented at this web address, either original works or tribute films, are entirely non profit. Some are available on the site — please drop a word and let us know what you think about them. Enjoy !

22 February 2005 : looping day. Heater noise, technician walking on a microphone cable, cracking caused by a non functional jack, recording machines left on the "off" position, everything conspires against a good sound take during the shooting of a film. Angélique and Cookie, actresses in Star Trek Monument, Eric, actor and director, Cyril, sound engineer, have gathered at Jean-Régis’s place. The actor’s flat was kind of turned upside down after consoles and microphones were set for action. The entire afternoon was spent on re-recording some irretrievable dialogue or sometimes forgotten voiceovers to be compiled on a digital cassette so that Eric was able to resynchronize everything. This did not go without a few laughters, as on the sets of the real Star Trek !

Rodolphe - our new digital special effects craftsman - joins Cedre to help him with his task. Rodolphe was a member of the staff of the French Constellation 3 Convention (www.constellation-conventions.com) and gravitates in the harsh realm of 3D Studio Max, the famous software that will make the Enterprise fly within incredible environmements.

After the summer hiatus, Eric starts to work on the soundtracks and comes up with a first rough mix in order to list all the elements that will have to be rerecorded later on. Seven elements are to be reworked. Parallel to that, he creates the main bridge computer animations. The process is simple : create as many pictures as there are motions in the animation. That’s how animated movies used to be done ! A long process perhaps, but an efficient one.

At the French Constellation 3 Convention (www.constellation-conventions.com), a rough edit of Star Trek Monument is screened. Eric is worried that the acting might be terrible and discreetly leaves the screening. But the audience is thrilled by this work-in-progress and greets the piece with an enthusiastic ovation. Von Flores, a Canadian actor once on the main credits of a sci-fi TV series entitled Earth : Final Conflict, is impressed by the technical qualities of the movie and reassures Eric about the performances - worse acting has been witnessed sometimes on professional television.

Cookie is back to the studio to finish her scenes, but it is Angélique Majchrzy, a great young lady but with limited availability, that made us choose this new shooting date so that she could portray the ship’s second in command. She is by far the most talented amateur actress of the bunch and she plays the part splendidly. A star is born. The day ends with a few voice-overs and the final scene of the movie between the Captain and his Number One.

From then on, Eric uses the following months to create a first cut of the movie.

First shooting day at La Potinodière Studios in L’Isle-Adam, France. The greenscreen has been erected on the entire width of the room. The lights are set up, making the place warmer than it usually is. The 500 W babies are targeting the aluminum roof because they are too powerful for the actors to face them. Cookie is made up as an Andorian officer. Eighty percent of her scenes are shot on that day, including technobabble-heavy dialogue.

Second day in the woods. Frank Mikanowski takes Lionel’s place and also serves as a very professional set photographer (link to Photo Galleries). Most exterior scenes are in the can. The first day’s training was useful, leaving the three staffers the cool feeling that the movie is really moving forward.

First trials in the woods with Eric Saussine as Captain and director, Cedre Teilhard operating the camera and Lionel Sanchis as the rehearsal coordinator. Only a couple of shots ended up in the final cut of the movie.

Change of objective for the project. 90 / 100 minutes for a non professional project is way too long when the actors are no Marlon Brandos. Eric Saussine uses the same thematic material (the responsibilities of the Captain when he faces adversity) and rewrites a much shorter 14-minute project. As a consequence, the movie’s title also changes and the project is now known as Star Trek Monument.

We acquired a greenscreen whose color now conforms to what is used by professional special effect studios. Our first attempt at a greenscreen was a tad too dark - when we removed the green color to composite our digital backgrounds the process sometimes tended to eat up the other dark colors. The teasers available on the websites show that you still can get very satisfying results.

Now digital matting should prove easier. The club also plans the building of a metallic rig to stretch the screen and get a clean, homogeneous background.

Frank has invested in a 3CCD DV camera and it already makes things easier for rehearsals, avoiding the now-dreaded use of my antique analogic camera. It also allowed us to do some serious testing that could be digitally edited and gave us a glimpse of what could be. Two sequences ended up before the unforgiving lens of the camera - a forrest chase and dialogue scene between the two main characters in the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral - fully re-created in the director’s apartment !

The results of this testing prevent future problems and give the crew some insight about what has to be avoided - shooting when planes are flying above the forrest, ensuring sound continuity by placing the mic at identical spots to avoid mixing problems later, removing autumn leaves so that actors do not have to raise their legs too high - the effect of which is rather comical on TV. Those are as many potential bugs that the crew would probably not have foreseen at the time of the real shooting.