U-Matic

Eastern Market
5-21-91
5:00 - 7:15 AM

U-Matic S tape containing footage shot in Eastern Market between 5:00 AM and 7:15 AM on May 21, 1991. The tape features workers loading and unloading flowers and produce in the pre-dawn hours, buyers purchasing goods early in the morning, pans across the businesses adjacent to the market, and the sunrise over the market.

The tape begins with footage of workers loading flowers from a cart into trucks. The camera catches signs on the trucks for Sam's Fruit and Vegetable Fair and Parker's Greenhouse. Workers are then shown moving carts of flowers around, and displaying flowers for sale in one of the market's open sheds. The camera crew stages a purchase by a woman from one of the flower vendors. Several more shots follow of flowers, vendors, another purchase being made, and workers in a forklift.

The crew then moves to another stall where a forklift is being used to move boxes of produce. A vendor shows off a box of peppers. After several further shots of vendors, crates of produce, and people making sales, the camera moves to Russell Street for shots of passing trucks.

The next series of shots take place in the warehouse bay of Sunnyside Produce on Russell Street. Here boxes of produce are stacked along the walls. Outside, several forklifts and trucks are filmed passing. Two Tony Lin Produce trucks are shown outside of Tony Lin Produce on the west corner of Russell and Adelaide, before the camera returns to passing truck traffic on Russell.

As the sun begins to rise, the camera gets several shots of the sky over market, followed by more shots of passing trucks and forklifts. The camera pans from Shed 3 to a Sunnyside Produce Company truck, and then zooms in on the "Eastern Market" sign over the northwestern entrance of Shed 2. The next shots show the exterior of Farmers Restaurant, workers standing outside of Sunnyside Produce, and then workers loading a truck.

The camera then moves to Shed 4. Here the camera finds vendors unloading vans. A Charlie's Fruit and Vegetables van is among them. An off-camera speaker can be heard discussing the prices of produce. The camera then gets a shot of pallets of boxes outside of Ciaramitaro Brothers Fruit and Produce on the north corner of Market Street and Winder Street.

The camera then turns around for a series of shots featuring Shed 2 from Winder Street, including a pan from the downtown skyline to the southeast entrance's chicken mural. During the series, the camera operator switches from the camera's night filter.

Still from Winder Street, the camera then gets shots of the exteriors of Ciaramitaro Brothers Fruit and Produce, R. Hirt Jr. Company, Vivio's, Eastern Market Seafood, and Cost Plus Wine Shoppe.

A lengthy series of zoom shots follow of the sun rising over Winder Street. Berry and Sons Islamic Slaughterhouse is visible at the end of the block. The camera zooms from beyond Riopelle Street, back to Ciaramitaro Brothers on Market Street. Between shots of the sunrise, from the intersection of Winder Street and Market Street, the camera pans around from the downtown skyline to Shed 2. The camera then gets a shot of the exteriors of R. Hirt, Vivio's, Eastern Market Seafood, and Cost Plus from the parking lot to the southwest. Then, from the same parking lot, the camera pans from camera pans across business on the opposite side, along Russell Street (including the Cookie Factory, the Russell Street Deli, Zef's Coney Island, the Rocky Peanut Company, and Del Bene Produce), then along Winder Street past Shed 2, then to Ciaramitaro Brothers, and finally to back to the businesses along Market Street from the previous shot.

After a cut, filming resumes near Russell and Winder Streets for exterior shots of Del Bene Produce, Rafal Spice Company. Beginning with a shot of a Moceri truck in the foreground with Shed 2's chicken mural in the background, the remainder of the tape is silent. Further shots follow of the sun rising over the businesses along Market Street between Winder Street and the East Fisher Service Drive, truck traffic on Winder and Russell, workers and boxes outside of Del Bene, and the cow mural over the southwest entrance of Shed 2.

The recording is on a 3M UCA 30S U-Matic tape with a handwritten label directly on the tape's shell. The tape is housed within a black plastic case with a handwritten City of Detroit Department of Public Information Video Production label on its cover.