(1) Overview
Repository location
Context
The database was developed by a Polish research team as part of the project “Animation Studios in Gottwaldov and Lodz (1945/47–1990) – Comparative Collective Biography”, led by Pavel Skopal and Ewa Ciszewska. The main research goal of the project was to compare the structure and intensity of the personal, material, and institutional ties that formed selected animation studios in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Methodologically, it was based on prosopographic research (Bednarz-Łuczewska & Łuczewski, 2012). The transdisciplinary nature of the research is evident in the combination of methodologies characteristic of film studies of production, sociology of art, relational sociology and prosopography (Jarząbek, 2019).
The Polish team comprised two assistant professors from the University of Lodz, supported by undergraduate and doctoral students from both within and outside the university. The interview process was guided by a detailed thirteen-page script and a seven-page questionnaire, covering various aspects of the respondents’ lives. The repository’s website, where the 31 transcripts are stored, includes interviews conducted from April 2021 to November 2023. Each transcribed recording averaged 147 minutes, resulting in approximately 100 hours and 5 minutes of interviews, with the longest interview being 597 minutes long and the shortest 52. The Czech team interviewed 37 narrators, however, they did not make the dataset with interviews available to the public.
The database comprises 31 transcripts, all in Polish. Additionally, a “Read Me” file, a general dataset description, and the questionnaire are provided in both Polish and English. The interviewees included a wide range of roles within the studio, such as CEOs, screenwriters, directors, animators, cinematographers, and technical staff such as copyists, painters, phasers, puppeteers, editors, production managers, prop makers, and sound effects authors. The individuals interviewed represent 4.25 percent of the studio’s total workforce over the period 1947–1999. These are the living persons with the longest tenure at the company.
Considering that individual employees often held multiple positions in the studio, it is impossible to identify each person with only one profession. However, the main professions of the employees can be distinguished, consisting of 3 CEOs, 1 production manager, 10 directors, 3 screenwriters, 2 animators, 1 dialogue writer and songwriter, 2 editors, 1 sound effects author, 1 prop maker, 3 cinematographers, 1 puppeteer, 1 phaser, 2 painters and 1 copyist. The oldest employees were born in 1930 and the youngest in 1964, noting that the database includes 9 transcriptions of interviews with people born in the 1930s, 9 born in the 1940s, 11 in the 1950s and 2 in the 1960s. 35% of the transcriptions are interviews with women. In terms of gender representation in the studio, the list of interviewees corresponds to the actual state. Roles such as director, screenwriter, or prop maker were typically male-dominated, while picture editing, phasing, celluloid painting, and copying were considered female professions at “Se-Ma-For”. Our database reflects these proportions.
In some cases, multiple transcript files exist for a single interviewee when interviews were conducted over several sessions or included significant pauses. The informants were not provided with the questionnaire beforehand, and approximately two-thirds of the interviews took place in the respondents’ homes (Figure 1). Due to personnel changes in the scholarship positions, the same person did not always continue the interview.
Figure 1
Team member Ewa Ciszewska with director Andrzej Piliczewski at his home in Łódź during the interview on August 22, 2022. Conducting these interviews provided access to the interviewees’ private collections. Source: Project archive.
(2) Method
Steps
The questionnaire was developed in stages by the Polish and Czech teams, beginning in spring 2021. Involved researchers participated in a course focused on the practical application of network theory using concepts by Bruno Latour (2005) and Pierre Bourdieu (1984).
These meetings significantly influenced the construction of knowledge units (KU), which each team member then used to formulate their research questions (RQ) (Figure 2). The first draft of the questionnaire was derived from a selection of these KU tailored to each RQ. KUs were formed based on four variables: I (objective), O (self-reflexive), G (multi-purpose), N (SNA-purpose). One KU could contain at most two, non-exclusive variables within it. Issues numbered in this way were included in one of seven groups – from those for the survey to reputational ties, trust, social cohesion, family ties and patronage. RQs were placed in separate columns, marking in a binary method what potential areas of life might provide useful data to be used in research. The RQs that scored the highest number of points formed the basis for developing later questions. The questions were divided into two categories: basic biographical information was placed in a separate questionnaire, while questions regarding professional careers at “Se-Ma-For” were included in the main script. The script covered the following areas of the respondents’ lives: identity, formal and informal education, mobility and hierarchy within the studio, festivals and travel, everyday life and basic work standards, relations with foreign countries, nationality, faith, political views, the process of film production, transfer of knowledge, important acquaintances, trust, social ties, family ties, patronage and technical questions about acquiring contacts with other employees.
Figure 2
Table showing the Knowledge Units (KUs) used to formulate questions for the questionnaire. Source: Project archive.
The Polish team reviewed scholarly texts that later influenced the qualitative research methodology, playing a significant role in the development of the interview script. Through collaborative discussions with Czech partners, a standardized interview questionnaire was created, divided into 15 sections, comprising 92 mandatory questions along with 55 additional questions.
Although the interviews followed the script, the structure of the transcription did not always align with the questionnaire due to the conversational nature of the interviews. Anticipating this, the Polish team prepared a simulated interview as a guideline for future interviewers, highlighting potential challenges and strategies for eliciting the desired responses.
Sampling strategy
The selection of interviewees primarily employed a snowball sampling technique, with a focus on seeking informants who held below-the-line positions. The period of the interviews was strongly marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of our interviewees were people over the age of 70, and therefore particularly vulnerable to the effects of the virus. The pandemic caused a prolonged period of arranging interviews and the need to reschedule multiple times.
Quality control
In mid-2022, the interview script was updated with a table of contents and a checklist. Some questions were removed, stabilizing the number at 85 mandatory and 35 additional questions. The survey component was integrated into the recorded interviews because respondents tended to provide extensive answers from the outset. These changes mainly concerned the structure of the questions, removing the unnecessary ones or combining several into one. Transcripts include additional remarks in the text, marking a pause, the respondent’s leaving for another room or a request to turn off the recorder. The headings of the interviews include information about the place where the interview was conducted and the circumstances of the interview, such as any noise or the presence of other people who may have affected the interview. Transcriptions were completed by both project members and outsourced professionals. Each transcription includes a metric (Figure 3). However, there were no specified technical parameters for the transcription files, leading to some inconsistencies, such as varied time stamp formats.
Figure 3
The first page of each transcription file. Source: Project archive.
During the review process, errors, repetitions, and linguistic mistakes in the interviewees’ statements were edited to enhance readability. This process also allowed for the visual standardization of transcriptions and enabled the anonymization of interviews where respondents did not consent to the disclosure of personal information.
The quality control process ensured that all necessary consents were obtained and archived, despite the turnover of interviewers. The inventory sheet was verified, and all materials were correctly labelled.
(3) Dataset Description
Repository name
University of Lodz Repository
Object name
Animation workers from “Se-Ma-For” Studio of Small Film Forms in Lodz (dataset)
Format names and versions
PDF, ODT.
Creation dates
2021-04-16 to 2024-03-22.
Dataset creators
Gonciarz, Martyna. Investigation, methodology, resources. Affiliation: University of Lodz.
Hofelmajer-Roś, Agata. Validation. Affiliation: University of Silesia in Katowice.
Nadarzycka, Oliwia. Investigation, resources, methodology. Affiliation: University of Lodz.
Pabiś-Orzeszyna, Michał. Supervision, formal analysis, methodology. Affiliation: University of Lodz.
Rawska, Monika. Methodology. Affiliation: SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
Language
English; Polish
License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Publication date
2024-05-07
(4) Reuse Potential
The transcripts offer valuable insights applicable to various academic fields, including sociology, ethnography, history, art history, film studies, cultural studies and economics.
The transcriptions were used during the coding process in Atlas.ti, facilitating comparative analysis across different periods of the studio’s history, roles and departments at “Se-Ma-For”. This approach allows for comparisons with other animation studios, both within the Eastern Bloc and in capitalist contexts, from a historical and contemporary perspective. The interview script can also serve as a valuable tool for researching other animation studios.
The transcripts have been utilized in scholarly articles exploring the material conditions for puppet film production in Poland (Ciszewska, 2023), as well as a separate, edited publication of one of the interviews (Szul, 2023). Additionally, the dataset formed the foundation for a book about “Se-Ma-For” (Ciszewska et al., 2025) and has been used for didactic and popularization purposes. Transcripts supported teaching courses at the University of Lodz and exhibitions in the Museum of Cinema in Łódź (Figure 4).
Figure 4
Photo documentation from the exhibition “Palace Full of Fairy Tales” at the Museum of Cinema in Łódź. Interviews collected as part of the project were utilized during the preparation of the exhibition script. Fot. Ewa Ciszewska. Source: Project archive.
Acknowledgements
Many people worked with the core team to create the dataset. Thank you to those who conducted the interviews, transcribed the recordings and edited the documents: Joanna Banaszczyk, Patryk Drzewiecki, Antonina Matysiak, Tomasz Poborca, Kinga Redlińska, Łukasz Skórko, Aleksandra Stysińska, Teofila Włodarczyk.
Funding Information
This work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (Animation Studios in Gottwaldov and Lodz (1945/47–1990) – Comparative Collective Biography, GF21–04081K) and National Science Center, Poland (2020/02/Y/HS2/00015).
Competing Interests
The authors have no competing interests to declare.
Author Contributions
Ewa Ciszewska – project administration, conceptualization, investigation, methodology, data curation, resources, supervision, validation, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing.
Szymon Szul – conceptualization, investigation, methodology, resources, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing.