Simone Graham's EPQ project examines how the Disney Corporation has achieved success and how their film production techniques and types of films contribute to this success. Through secondary research of sources like books, websites and surveys, as well as primary research including analyzing movie trailers and surveying family and friends, Simone found that while Disney focuses on profits and technology, the general public cares more about story, characters and quality. Simone also learned about Disney's history and the production processes involved in creating their animated films. Overall, the project helped improve Simone's research and analysis skills.

1. EPQ Project
HOW HAS THE DISNEY CORPORATION (DISNEY) BUILT UP THEIR SUCCESS
AND HOW MUCH DOES THEIR PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES AND THE
TYPES OF FILMS THAT THEY PRODUCE CONTRIBUTE TO THIS?
By Simone Graham

2. EPQ Outline
 The main focus of my extended project qualification is on the topic
of Disney and their filming success. – focusing on three different
filming formats.
 My project shows the history of how Walt Disney and his brother
started the business from nothing.
 It looks at the ways they have developed their technology to adapt
to their audience as the process of the film is the core of the success
of the business.
 The reason I chose this subject, is that it connects to all of my A2
studies, and I also enjoy watching Disney myself. It enables me to
gather wider research into the different skills and knowledge which
connects with my subjects.

3. Research – Primary
 Throughout my EPQ project, I have had to rely heavily on my research as I had to
learn new areas about Disney which even though it is ‘in your face’, you tend to not
notice it.
 My first primary research which I undertook was observing the official movie trailers,
finding out what they use to attract their audience in the space of two minutes.
 The second type of primary research consisted of three surveys/ task, which was
asked to family members and friends, ranging from the age of 10 to the age of 75.
 The questions/ task I asked were:
 To come up with a list of things that they associated with the success of Disney.
 To read the production techniques - used to produce the chosen three films - of Disney
animation (my findings), and then watch the film trailers.
 After trailer - To comment on what they felt was their opinion of the films (likes/dislikes)

4. Research – Secondary
 My Secondary research was my main use of research.
 The secondary sources I used were the Internet (Online Newspapers,
Forbes – company profile – stock shares) Books, Leaflets, Disney
Websites and Disney wiki
 Secondary research enabled me to find further information about
the Disney corporation from a variety of sources.
 Due to Disney being a large company it was both easy and hard to
find information about them.

5. Analysis of Findings - 1
 The word “success” means different things to Disney and the general
public. Disney view it to mean profits, and the general public see it
from a personal perspective i.e. what can the company do for me?
The Disney view would be because it has share holders and would need
to make a profit for them, and the general public would want to make
sure that they are getting value for their money.
 Although Disney invest a lot of money in the technology used for
producing animated film, the general public are more concerned
about the storyline, characters and the overall quality of the film.
Disney’s view about technology is that they need to ‘stay a head of the
game’ so that their competitors would not produce better quality films
than themselves. Again, the general public are more concerned about
value for money rather than what has been done to produce a film.

6. Analysis of Findings - 2
 A lot of planning and money goes into the making of Disney films
that covers the following areas – background, storyline, characters,
use of animation/special effects, performers’ roles, song/music, and
art direction – scenery, props and costumes. Disney has invested a
lot of money in these areas, but the general public are more
concerned with the storyline, characters, music and lyrics, and art
direction. This backs up the previous point in that the production
technique is not viewed as being important to the general public,
but does not explain why they did not feel that the performers’ roles
were important.

7. Project Strengths
 Finding the right sources and information to use to conduct my
research.
 That I was able to choose a large company and narrow down my
findings into one question.
 I was able to use my existing skills and knowledge from media and
business.
 I was able to use own personal knowledge gained from watching
the films and reading news.
 I was able to carry out a survey using existing skills and knowledge
and analyse the results.
 Support from family and friends who helped me, with the survey

8. Project Weaknesses
 It took a lot of time for me to come up with the final project title as
Disney is such a large area.
 I found it hard to keep to my word count due to the topic being so
large.
 Time management and planning
 Keeping focused on the main question, while writing up the essay
 Not putting the footnotes in the correct position
 Trying to keep word count down by writing notes, instead of
sentences.

9. What I Have Learnt -1
 Throughout my EPQ project I have been able to widen my
knowledge about Disney Corporation from research relate and not
related to my essay
 I have learnt that within every Disney film that they have included
the mickey mouse symbol (three circles) in it
 Disney is a larger company than I first thought as all together their
net worth $142.92 billion.
 There is no official date for when Disney commenced
 How Walt Disney and his brother helped build up Disney
 The first official Disney buildings were connected by underground
tunnels

10. What I Have Learnt - 2
 Disney films have to do through a lot of different technical processes
before the final film is produced
 Disney had to buy in a lot of new animated technology to produce
the film Maleficent
 The general public do not consciously allow the different types of
techniques (animated, live actors with animation, and live actors
only) that Disney uses to produce their films, to influence if they will
watch it.
 Maleficent was filmed entirely in England

11. Final Thoughts
 Finding a question that you want to do for EPQ is not as easy as you
think when you are basing your question on a large international
company such as Disney
 Doing this easy has helped me to improve my research and
analytical skills
 It is not easy to write about Disney’s success within the word limit
given so you need to be very focused when writing up the essay
 I have enjoyed researching about Disney and I have learnt a lot
about the company.
 If I was given the option to do EPQ again, I am not sure that I would
do it as I had 3 other A2 subjects to focus on, but I would advise
other people to do it at least once because I have learnt a lot from
it.