Deira Fish Market: The making of a documentary

Documentary film-making is an exciting form of film-making to learn. What started as a mere graduation project has now become an integral part of my life. Living more at the fish market than at my own house, the experience has truly taught me to appreciate the work of film-makers world over.

Day 1: Research

Date : Wednesday, 17 March, 2010

Time : 6:30 PM

My arrival at the fish market was announced by the ubiquitous smell that doesn’t spare anyone visiting the market. Walking my way through the Gold Souq bus stop, I reached the auction bench where the shark auctions were taking place.

With a camera strapped around my neck and a notepad in my hand, I looked more like a reporter than a film-maker. The local auctioneers were pleasantly surprised to see a stranger ask about their profession. Soon, I was caught in the melee of frantic bidding as the prices soared with every bid. After spending an hour at the place, I had already met quite a few interesting people, Nazir - the auctioneer, Ashraf - the bidder and Gani – the boss.

I have been working here for the last 15 years and this is where I spent most of my day. From unloading fishes to trolleying the daily catch, I do everything at the market. My family is in Pakistan and I have six sons to look after. This is my only source of income and I am grateful to Allah for providing me with this work - Haji Chacha

With interesting inputs from my tentative subjects, I moved to the actual retail market as the buyers greeted me with a warm smile. They were more than happy to get their photos clicked by me as they shared insights on their life and their job as fish-vendors.

Shark fins are an exotic specialty exported to the far-east. The sharks come from Oman and get processed at a factory in Fujairah as the fins are dried in direct sunlight for fifteen days. Packaging and processing the fins takes some more days as they ultimately end up in the far-east - Gani

Mission Accomplished: Learn about the auction mechanism at the market.

Day 2: Shoot

Date : Thursday, 1 April, 2010

Time : Midnight – 8:30 AM

After contemplating the shooting agenda for two weeks, the team finally gathered at the auction site outside the market. Shooting at midnight wasn’t particularly easy as the chaos had multiplied manifold. People, trucks and fish were the only three things in sight. With Presley, Helly, Aakriti and Pooja at hand for the shoot, making our way through the crowd wasn’t all that hard. Shooting in PAL (Anamorphic 16:9), the compositions were breathtaking. Sifting between auctions while asking questions and finding new subjects, the juggernaut of working under pressure started getting the better out of us. Midway through the shoot, we decided to take a break and rested at a studio flat (Courtesy - Helly Shah) near the market. We were back in the market after half an hour as the morning call to prayer was sounding in the background. By now, the auctions had drawn to a close as the fish was being sorted out into trucks for sale at different points across the country. The team then shifted course and chartered its way through to the Karama fish market where the fish stock was yet to arrive from the wholesale trade at Deira. The team finally managed to wind up the shoot after eight hours of being on-location.

Mission Accomplished: Document the unsystemized auctioning system in place to sell fish.

Day 3: B-Roll Shoot

Date : Friday, 2 April, 2010

Time : 6:30 PM

Shot some more of the Deira Fish market as we looked to capture some variety at the market.

Day 4: Post-Production

Date : Saturday, 3 April, 2010

Time : 11:30 AM – 7:30 PM

The long weekend continued for the crew as this time around the team met for digitization at the university. Saturday, being an off day, is one of the best days to work in college as there is no one around at the campus. After shooting in wide-screen, it was more of a challenge for us to digitize in anamorphic as the FCP platform read the file differently with every new tape. Somehow, we sorted out the widescreen errors as the footage was organized and our project started taking shape. After spending over eight hours at the edit bay in college, the crew left satisfied with an intro-montage in place.

Mission Accomplished: Digitize the DV’s and organize the project into Bins & Sequences.

Day 4: Close-Ups of faces

Date : Monday, 5 April, 2010

Time : 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Tagging along with me for yet another shoot was my all-so-reliable classmate, Presley Oscar D’Souza. After meeting up outside the Union Square metro station, we took a cab to the Deira Fish market for the umpteenth time. This time around, we were looking to capture some detail with the vivid faces on display at the market. Shooting from the periphery of the market with a tripod this time around, the experience was wonderful as a lot of passersby and Emaratis came to enquire about our film. Capturing faces is invariably one of the most enjoyable aspects of shooting as the intensity comes with being candid. When rolling a face, the best shot usually happens when the person turns and looks into the camera with great intent.

Mission Accomplished: Record the faces of people working at the market.

Day 5: Post-Production (Scripting)

Date : Tuesday, 6 April, 2010

Time : 12:30 AM – 4:30 PM

By this stage, we are over 45% complete as the footage lies in place. Now the hard part of polishing the pre-shoot script starts. Trying to script the write words and match them with the most appropriate visuals can be painstaking at times; I mean most of the times. It is just not my thing.

I will keep updating this post until the documentary gets completed!

PS: Thanks to my team members; Pooja Vasu, Aakriti Thakur, Helly Shah, Presley Oscar D’Souza and myself Muaz Shabandri.