Dr. Kurek and Grzegorz Wacławek, Director of Animoon

The programme to sponsor Polish filmmakers set up jointly by NCBJ and Polish Film Institute (PISF) is going to support production of the “Pelican” animated cartoon, a tale of  an unusual friendship, dreams, discovering and accepting who you are. The production won in 2016 a PISF grant. On May 26, 2017 NCBJ signed with the “Pelican” producers, Animoon sp. z o.o. company, a sponsoring agreement. The producers will be able to purchase at some significant discounts services of Renderownia Świerk, a part of the NCBJ-operated Świerk Computing Centre (CIŚ).

“Pelican” will be the first in Poland feature-length animated cartoon with so vast production efforts. The cartoon is to be produced by the Animoon sp. z o.o. company. According to the reached sponsoring agreement, NCBJ will offer services of Renderownia Świerk, a part of its CIŚ centre, at very favourable terms. Access to high performance CIŚ super-computer may significantly shorten the cartoon production process and reduce associated costs. The agreement is an element of the NCBJ-PISF (Polish Film Institute) cooperation established last year. The cooperation aims to sponsor production of resourceful Polish films: each project that won a PISF grant is also granted access to CIŚ super-computer at some preferential terms. The producers gain new attractive opportunities helping them to implement their artistic visions, while cinema goers may expect more interesting Polish movies.

“Pelican” will be a feature-length animated cartoon targeted at entire families. Its screenplay based on the “Ihmisen vaatteissa” novel by Leena Krohn, a Finnish writer, has been written for more than five years. Already at the early development stage the project was awarded in the Media Creative Europe programme aimed to promote European audiovisual culture. A team of experienced and recognized artists who engaged themselves in the project accomplishment include Magda Osińska, film director working for the Aardman studios; Bartosz Wierzbięta, co-author of the screenplay, recognized author of screenplays/dialogues and translator of more than 100 feature-length animated cartoons; Przemysław Chruścielewski, editor of the “Ostatnia Rodzina” film that won numerous awards. The project won in 2016 a PISF grant in the “Feature-Length Movies for Young Cinema-Goers or Families” category. The Animoon company is cartoon executive producer..

„NCBJ sponsoring programme is a brilliant idea! As past President of Association of Polish Cartoon Producers I know needs of Polish film producers very well and I could safely risk saying that the programme may entirely revolutionize the industry of making Polish cartoons" – said Grzegorz Wacławek, producer of the “Pelican” cartoon. – „With such significant support cartoon producers may more easily balance their budgets. The programme significantly increases chances for wealth of animated productions in Poland within a few coming years”.

NCBJ cooperation with the filmmakers community has been very good for several years. The Renderownia Świerk service was established on the basis of experience gained while rendering of majority of scenes in the “Warszawa 1935” film in 2013. To-day the service offers quite broad range of services, including “automatic self-service”, “dedicated servers” and “configuration on-demand”.

“NCBJ operations are not limited to purely scientific matters, they may bring also some less tangible social benefits” – said Dr. Krzysztof Kurek, NCBJ Director General. “For example, we are perfectly aware of the fact that social attitude may be of key importance in the nuclear power field. Our involvement in production of resourceful films gives us big satisfaction. Particularly if a production targeted at younger generations is in question.”

NCBJ may set aside as much as a couple of hundred servers simultaneously to provide for filmmakers’ needs. Such work environment may significantly shorten time of production and improve filmmakers’ work comfort. „We are very glad that we could support so extremely warm-hearted work of art” – said Dr. Michał Findeisen, Manager of the Renderownia Świerk service. „Youth and children may very well be the most demanding audience as far as the diligence in obtaining top quality of animation is concerned. That in turn calls for huge computing power. Cartoon producer estimated that using their computer it would took about 150 years to rendered nearly half a million frames needed for the “Pelican” project. On the other hand our servers will make possible to shorten that time to just about 20 weeks.”

Grzegorz Wacławek, Director of Animoon Studio said: “I wish some of Polish film productions turned out to be so a big hit as “Witcher” was in the computer game segment. I am convinced that Polish feature-length animated cartoons are able to conquer foreign markets and entirely change Polish animated cartoon  production industry. Everybody in the industry is waiting for a hit attracting attention to large potential of the industry. I’m sure that NCBJ sponsorship will significantly help to attain that goal. NCBJ-PISF collaboration is the best example of how enthusiasm of a few competent persons may influence and shape the industry”.