The opinion documentary Shifting Success focuses on showcasing the question of redirection and whether it can have a positive outcome despite the struggles. The two subjects Fernanda Zalfa and Giuseppe Norrito tell inspiring stories that question redirection and the impact it had on their lives. Although it may alter their original life plan it can result in successes they never imagined.
Shifting Success begins with an introduction to the two subjects and their original career path. Beginning at this point allowed us to showcase their redirection later on in the piece. The two subjects are introduced, but not related in any way so their stories are intertwined throughout detailing Fernanda’s shift from set designer to small business owner and Giuseppe's from baseball player to police officer. During its creation, my group which consisted of myself, Maria Arruda, Riley Orovitz, and Abigail Chaiet decided to follow common documentary conventions rather than challenge them. Since we had struggled with the idea already we thought it made more sense to cover things we knew would work. This would allow us to follow Fernanda and Giuseppe in a much more navigable light. The conventions we felt were necessary to incorporate were staged b-roll, archival footage/photography, and music. Now that we are done with production it is clear that these choices enhanced our documentary and helped further our purpose.
The documentary covered two real-life subjects and their stories placing it in the biographical category of the documentary genre. The employment of b-roll was necessary as in the past we mostly had photos and the addition of a video component would add to the documentary and make them feel even more real. Inspiration for the staged b-roll in Shifting Success came from the Netflix docu-series Abstract. One specific episode in particular helped us decide it would benefit our documentary and it was titled The Art of Design. Focusing on a costume designer named Ruth E. Carter they wanted to showcase her past life and used herself in a stage to represent her high school self. It allowed the audience to see a representation of her past life without the sole use of photographs. They also filmed her creating outfits for characters which were planned but furthered the audience's understanding of her job. For Giuseppe and Fernanda’s past, we knew that photos wouldn’t be sufficient, especially in Fernanda’s case. Giuseppe's past was heavily documented through photos while Fernanda’s severely lacked. It was clear that for Fernanda’s past job at Globo, would need to be represented by staged b-roll and Giuseppe's through archived photos.
While staged b-roll was an important aspect of our documentary archival footage and photos would be integral to showcasing their past. As a group, we combined our knowledge of documentaries from research done in class and incorporated it into our production. I watched an op doc from The New York Times and thoroughly enjoyed their use of archived footage and decided it would also work well in our documentary. The op doc titled Almost Famous highlights the story of a woman who made a scientific discovery. Since they are covering the topic over 50 years later they had to rely on photographs and old videos to tell their story. In our documentary, we decided to add the photos with a border to make it more interesting which in hindsight took away from them, but at the time felt necessary. This is because we didn’t want the b-roll to feel repetitive especially since a lot of it would look similar. The use of archived footage and photos definitely furthered our purpose and displayed both the subject's stories well and the places that lacked we made up for with the planned b-roll mentioned earlier.
Music was another convention we felt was important as it would help us signal a turn in the documentary. We didn’t have any specific inspiration on how we wanted to incorporate it, we kind of just went with our gut and I think in the end it worked out well. It supported the points we thought were important without taking away from the scene. I felt our use of the conventions created a documentary with a meaningful purpose. Since it was a lot to tackle in a short time we had to prioritize what we felt was necessary to include and through the use of these conventions, it made it clear.
During the creation of our documentary, we knew that our target audience was not going to look like the subjects on the screen. The purpose of the documentary was to show a younger audience change in a positive light. Our target audience is young adults ranging from seventeen to twenty-four. We felt this range was fitting as it included students facing redirection for the first time through college decisions and those leaving college to enter the workforce. Both of these daunting tasks create stress that is mostly unnecessary as in the end, it will all work out. Shifting Success was created to show that with great fear comes great change. Our subjects came from completely different backgrounds allowing a wide variety of audiences to relate to it. While this wasn’t the original plan it most definitely enhanced our documentary when it comes to the target audience. In its completed form it shows different paths that both end with success, leaving both Fernanda and Giuseppe with happy lives. The hope is people find comfort in knowing that change is normal and doesn’t always end badly. As a person with a severe fear of change creating this piece felt cathartic for me. I slowly realized while I was trying to push a message how much I needed to hear it myself.
In the end, Shifting Success shows two adults who have grown comfortable with the change in their lives and how it has altered the original plan they had. This project not only allowed Maria and I to tell our parent’s stories but share a message that resonates with our entire group. From learning the ins and outs of creating a documentary to stressing over its quality I felt that while it might not be the best production ever it encompassed the purpose we wanted to get across.
Thank you for coming along on this journey I'll see you soon…;)
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