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Because of the niche market that my documentary will appeal too there do not seem to be many other documentaries of its kind. This would be of great benefit to me if I were presenting the idea to producers as it is a never before used topic. There was only one documentary on a bookshop that I could find, although my only resource was the internet. This documentary was called ‘portrait of a bookstore as an old man’. This observational documentary focused on the owner of the bookshop, a ninety year old man called George Whitman, rather than the actual bookshop itself. The bookshop is called ‘Shakespeare & Company’ and is in Paris. Because the documentary focuses on the owner rather than the bookshop it will mean that my documentary will still be original in its content. The documentary opens with a shot of the inside of a car looking through the front window. It then cuts to a man sitting talking about Whitman. From then on we follow George and the writers that come to live in his bookshop with no lodging costs. It was however interesting to learn about his life and the history of the bookshop so I may include a small section of this in my documentary so that the audience will create an emotional tie to the bookshop.

Another part of the documentary that I would like to take inspiration from is the short shots of old dusty books, and customers browsing them. There were many clusters of shots like these spread throughout the documentary. When these were shown there was no audio over them, however I think I would like the audio to continue over my shots around the store. The documentary also interviewed people that knew the owner, whereas I will not include sections such as this. The product was very successful in capturing its audience; however it was fifty minutes long where mine will be cut at five. This means that I need to take the essence of the documentary and try to condense it to have as much success in my aim of the project.

To Watch: http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=5574284408427118756#