EPISODE 01
Arva & Farida Ahmed
Frying Pan Adventures
Two sisters born in Deira walk strangers through old Dubai and feed them what their neighbourhood eats.
MAKE THEM FEEL ITMAKE IT LAST
Passion Economy
IN PRODUCTIONMAKE THEM FEEL IT. MAKE IT LAST.
MAKE THEM FEEL IT. MAKE IT LAST.Four people in Dubai live off something they love — and it takes two very different jobs.
THE QUESTION
How do you grow something that only works because it is personal?
01·ANGLE & THEME
Angle & theme
The theme: living off a passion takes two different jobs — making a stranger feel it, and making that living last. Mastering both is rare. My angle: I never dared to start something of my own; they did. I don't film them winning — I film them working out how to do it. What interests me isn't their courage, it's their method. I film from the position of the one who didn't do it: I'm not judging, I'm asking how it's done.
02·THE SERIES ENGINE
The series engine
Each episode follows one person at work — and one of the others comes to see them. They take the tour, visit the workshop, climb the mountain, handle the lenses, and ask their own questions: a peer's, not a journalist's. That is what makes this a series rather than four separate portraits: each episode contains the others, and the comparisons happen on screen rather than in the edit.
03·THE FOUR
The gauge shows, for each episode, how much of the trade goes into making people feel it, and how much into making it last.
04·THE VISUAL APPROACH
COLOUR FOLLOWS THE TRANSMISSION, NOT THE LOCATION.
It isn't the city against the intimate. A souk crossed alone can be cold; an office where something passes between two people can be warm. The camera moves closer and warms when the passion reaches someone; it pulls back and cools when the person is alone with the economics. One lens set from the first frame to the last, so the rendering is identical across all four episodes. Shot Open Gate 5K, delivered in 2.37:1. Colour grammar after Traffic, Soderbergh.
05·A FEW SHOTS
—First frames in October 2026.
06·SCHEDULE
Schedule
September 2026 — camera arrives, one test shooting day.
October 2026 — production opens.
October–December 2026 — Frying Pan Adventures, their final season.
October 2026 – March 2027 — Antika, a long presence, including a sourcing trip to Rajasthan.
Winter 2026-2027 — ECC Adventures.
March 2027 — UAE Vintage Photo, starting at the Xposure fair in Sharjah.
April 2027 onwards — editing.
07·CREW & METHOD
Crew & method
Directing, production, cinematography and sound: Brice Escarguel. Co-direction and second camera: Taz. Editing: Edgar, from Abu Dhabi. Method: natural light first; handheld or tripod, never a gimbal; we observe, we speak little, we don't really film until trust is there.
08·SERIES STATUS
Series status
Documentary series, four episodes of 20 to 26 minutes, one character per episode. In production. Shooting from October 2026 to March 2027, editing from April 2027. English, with passages in French, Arabic and Hindi, subtitled.
SERIES·Photo reports
