Pilot is a Russian

animation studio An animation studio is a company producing animation, animated media. The broadest such companies conceive of products to produce, own the physical equipment for production, employ operators for that equipment, and hold a major stake in the sales ...

based in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. It was founded in 1988 by Alexander Tatarsky, Igor Kovalyov, Anatoly Prokhorov, and Igor Gelashvili, becoming the first private animation studio in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. They aimed at both auteur and commercial animation.''

Giannalberto Bendazzi Giannalberto Bendazzi (17 July 1946 – 13 December 2021) was an Italian animation historian, author, and professor. Life and career Born in Ravenna, Italy, and raised in Milan, Bendazzi started his career as a journalist and at the same time a ...

(2016)''
Animation: A World History: Volume III: Contemporary Times
— Boca Raton: CRC Press, pp. 195-196 ''Larisa Malyukova (2013)''. Pilot / OVERcinema. Modern Russian animation. — Saint Petersburg: Umnaya Masha, p. 18-43

History

Aleksandr Tatarsky served as the Pilot's artistic director up until his death in 2007. He was replaced by

Eduard Nazarov Eduard Vasilievich Nazarov (; 23 November 1941 – 11 September 2016) was a Soviet and Russian animator, screenwriter, voice actor, book illustrator and educator, artistic director at the Pilot (studio), Pilot Studio (2007–2016), vice-president ...

who held the position until 2013. Currently Igor Gelashvili serves as the studio's director. Pilot produced over 130 animated films. A subdivision called "Pilot-TV", founded in 1997, produced satirical animated series using 3D

motion-capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for val ...

d characters, most famous of them being the studio's key mascots: the Pilot Brothers based on Chief and Colleague from the popular Soviet mini-series '' Investigation Held by Kolobki''. The studio has received over 50 awards at international film festivals. It is best known for animating the popular

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

series '' Mike, Lu & Og'' outside of Russia. Many directors have worked in the studio, including Aleksandr Petrov, Konstantin Bronzit, Ivan Maximov, Andrey Sokolov. From 2004 on the studio has been working on ''Mountain of Gems'', its biggest project to date. By this day over seventy 13-minute cartoons were produced with the support of the

State Committee for Cinematography Goskino USSR () is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography (Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР) in the Soviet Union. It was a central state directory body for Sovi ...

. They are based on fairy tales of Russian people and other ethnic groups that populate the Russian Federation and former Soviet states. Each short features distinctive art direction and animation technique, including

claymation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...

, stop motion, traditional and computer animation. The project won a number of awards. During the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

, the studio almost shut down due to the lack of money. The four final films of the ''Mountain of Gems'' series were supposed to be finished in July 2010, with

Goskino Goskino USSR () is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography (Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР) in the Soviet Union. It was a central state directory body for Sovi ...

paying for them in February or April; however, the money was never received. Studio producer Lev Bubnikov has said that suing Goskino to make them uphold the contract would have been "pointless". Yet in 2012 the studio received further financing and the project was revived. In 2014 an official

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel for ''Mountain of Gems'' and its spin-off project ''Animated Russia'' was launched where the episodes are uploaded in Russian, English, Spanish and Chinese languages.Mountain of Gems series
at the official

channel

References

External links

Official website

"Mountain of Gems" project page

"Animated Russia" project page

Database of films by Pilot studio
on animator.ru
Video-montage made by Vitaly Shafirov shortly after the death of Aleksandr Tatarskiy, covering the early days of Pilot Studio
{{Authority control Russian animation studios Soviet film studios Film production companies of Russia Companies based in Moscow Mass media companies established in 1988 1988 establishments in Russia Soviet animation studios

History

See also

References

External links