GROUP WORK
GROUP MEETINGS
Below is a record of our meetings & work.
MEETING 1 – Tuesday 25/03/25
Attendants: All Members Present
Summary: We did a large spider diagram of our initial ideas around American Animation. We then collaboratively talked about how American Animation works in terms of production and what kinds of effects and consequences it produces for the Global Animation Industry as a whole – Americentrism, Monopoly, Job Opportunities etc. In the end, we settled on Disney as a case study for American Animation. Most of the writing on these following pictures is my own – transcribing our group’s ideas.
Whiteboard Work: 
MEETING 2 – Tuesday 01/04/25
Attendants: All Members Present
Summary: We made a general timeline and outline using “Mickey Mouse” as a prime example of Disney’s success. We then voted on a “topic sentence” to define exactly what our critical analyses would aim to cover: “Disney’s Mouse Race To Success” (It’s Causes & Consequences).
Whiteboard Work:
MEETING 3 – Thursday 03/04/25
Attendants: All Members Present
Summary: We brainstormed yet again on the 5 different sections each of us would cover in the poster. In the end these are the sections we settled on:
- Jamayne: Technological Advancement
- Christine: Profits
- Gio: Expanded Universe
- Katie: Style & Techniques
- Jack: Consequences: Failures & Successes
Whiteboard Work:
REFLECTION – MEETINGS: (MY OPINIONS)
These meetings allowed us a space to brainstorm and experiment with our ideas together which gave a wide array of possible “angles” when it came to our final poster. They also enabled us to combine our differing and unique perspectives together. Doing so allowed us to generate more nuanced and multi-facetted observations. And overall, the focus we had on planning group meetings only strengthened our group collaboration and cohesion. We could obviously have had more though and also kept our diagrams throughout these sessions a bit neater so that they were easier to peruse.
GROUP FEEDBACK (FROM TUTORS)
FEEDBACK – Tuesday 25/03/25 (CARMEN)
Carmen advised us to keep our ideas flexible and expansive at this stage – to simply drum up as many possible “angles” for our presentation as possible. We followed through on this advice via. our group work which enabled us to cooperate on spider diagrams to visually represent our ideas and then see the spread/flow of different themes & concepts.
FEEDBACK – Tuesday 01/04/25 (CARMEN)
Carmen advised us to agree unanimously on a given angle at this point for our poster. We did this via. a group vote on which company (Disney) and which angle we wanted to take (See “Topic Sentence” discussed in previous section). This was very helpful for harmonising the group – focusing our attention on a clear goal post for this project.
FEEDBACK – Thursday 03/04/25 (CARMEN)
Carmen advised us to describe and explicitly detail each section of our poster. We did this by dividing up the work evenly between us and agreeing upon a certain length for each section – each person writing about 300 words and speaking for approximately 2 minutes each. This concision enabled us to work independently and progress on our individual sections in our own time.
FEEDBACK – Thursday 08/04/25 (DARA)
Dara spoke with us during the workshop about our referencing and citations. He advised us to have at least 3 main sources from: A book/journal, a director, and one other prominent source. This was invaluable feedback as it encouraged us to focus on the reliability and accuracy of our sources which lead to a better use of citations throughout our poster.
MY INDIVIDUAL WORK
RESEARCH & ANALYSIS
MY REFERENCES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e3jG-0aMXImJ1gfNiTHyhBdDbJgMUamdl7M5EOb83nA/edit?addon_store&tab=t.0
REFLECTION
I did in-depth research for this project. My research consisted of various sources including books, articles, etc. to support my critical analyses and to lend credence to my ideas. I sought to portray the consequences of Disney’s globalisation, monopolisation, Americentrism, etc. But I also consistently made efforts to balance these views with the more positive effects Disney has had on the Animation Industry as a whole.
MY POSTER DESIGN IDEA
We each decided to put forward a “concept poster” in order to have an array of optional templates from which we could select our “final poster”. We agreed that the selection of our final poster would need to be unanimous as to avoid indecision & infighting.
BREAKDOWN:
I wanted my poster to have a pastel and “cartoon-ish” aesthetic to mirror the company we were researching. Our names are listed in the top-right and our sections broken up into 5 differently coloured sections to highlight our individual perspectives. The subtle throughlines between these blocks of colour are the greyed-out Mickey silhouettes plastered throughout the background which lead the eye slowly down from the top-left (TL) of the poster to the bottom-right (BR). This movement is also mirrored in the Mickey faces in the top-left of each of the first four sections of the poster, which progress from “Steamboat Willie” Mickey (his first appearance) all the way up to a more brightly coloured and 3-Dimensional Mickey. The Mickey faces are also facing different directions, adding a bit of asymmetry to break up the poster’s uniformity, but their eyes all point to the BR thus encouraging the viewer’s eyes to look there as well. The “Conclusion” colour block lacks a Mickey face because I wanted my section to be an important addendum to the main 4 sections and not steal too much visual attention.
REFLECTION
POST-PRESENTATION REFLECTION
POST-PRESENTATION FEEDBACK – Tuesday 15/04/25 (CARMEN & DARA)
PROS:
- Good presentation
- Good speaking skills
- Good analyses in general
CONS:
- A little text heavy
- A little bit of a cramped design
- We need to make sure we include all our references properly
REFLECTION: I agree completely with this feedback. I would also add the following criticisms as well:
- Our design could have been more experimental. We chose a corkboard-type design but there were some interesting designs in other presentations that I thought we could take note from in future e.g. group 12 who did a sleek old-computer-monitor design.
- We could have had more group rehearsals beforehand to ensure we all felt confident at speaking our individual parts.
- We could have added in some more critical analysis as opposed to just recounting historical events.
WORD COUNT: Approx. 994