Changes

Although Disney had always planned on creating a movie for the France pavilion that gave guests an overview of the country, Impressions de France went through many changes before making its debut. Original models for the France pavilion show the Palais du Cinema (which houses the film) as being round<ref> http://progresscityusa.com/2010/04/15/elseworlds-epcot-centers-french-circlevision/ </ref>. Initially, WDI President Marty Sklar tasked young filmmakers Bob Rogers and Richard Harper with coming up with a concept for a 20 minute Circle-Vision 360 film for the pavilion<ref name= "funworld"> Miller, Keith. “Record-Setting 'Impressions de France' Turns 35 Along with Epcot.” Funworld, Oct. 2017, pp. 22–23. </ref>. After a couple of months, the duo was tasking with creating the film. Unlike 360 films that had been created for World Showcase, like [[O' Canada]] and [[Wonders of China]], Harper and Rogers wanted to present the film in 200 degrees<ref name="funworld"/>. This allowed guests to sit down while they watched, while still having the screen cover their peripheral vision.

Before filming on Impressions de France started, director Rick Harper decided to match individual passages from classical music of the French music from the late Romantic and Impressionist period early Impressionistic eras with the proposed filming locations<ref name= "score"> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084124/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv </ref>. While shooting the film, Harper and writer/co-producer Bob Rogers sometimes used a stop watch, or played-back the music on a cassette recorder, to ensure that the shots would line up with the music. After filming the scenes, the shots were matched with the musical pieces that Harper had selected<ref name= "score"/>.

Because of the this preplanning, the "temp" soundtrack created for the film was far more detailed than is the norm. In total, Harper had about 80% of the score planned out. After hearing the temp score, composer Buddy Baker was enthused by what Harper was trying to do<ref name= "score"/>. Baker ended up using all of Harper's selections, but re-orchestrating them to improve the transitions and create bridges to fill the 20% of the film that Harper had not selected tracks for. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra finally recorded the soundtrack at Abbey Road Studio in London<ref name= "score"/>.

Impressions de France opened with the rest of the [[France]] pavilion on October 1, 1982<ref> https://d23.com/a-to-z/impressions-de-france-film/ </ref>. The only significant change to Impressions de France came in 2011 when the film was remastered and the theater was given digital projectors.