Back when I was writing more regularly about arts and culture, I became obsessed with the short recaps at the start of TV dramas.
I wondered how they were made – was it the production team, or a specialist unit of recappers? Was it an art or a science, to bring people up to speed and lay enough reminders for what was about to come? Was there a formula, or an arc you had to hit?
Interest well and truly piqued, I reached out to a few people in the TV industry with some exploratory questions. The response was uniform befuddlement.
Why are you interested in this? Why would I have any opinions on this purely functional TV furniture?
Tail between my legs, I quietly dropped the idea. The thing is, this wasn’t the only time that happened. I think I’m drawn to stuff in which other people – dare I say real people? – aren’t interested.
Not in a cool, hipster way, just a general sense of looking at the wrong thing.
(This may be a genetic trait – my mum went to see the Chippendales strip troupe once and came back raving about the lighting design.)
But then I was talking to Scott Lazer about his tremendous new short Ball People (2023), and I realised I’m not the only one.
His film follows the hugely competitive annual try-outs to be part of the US Open ball crew – the people on court who collect and return tennis balls to the players.
Scott explained he too is drawn to marginalia, so much so that he sees it as the connective thread across his output, fiction and documentary.
Scott’s brilliance comes from his tenacity. He identifies these things and pursues them, teasing out the story that will resonate with other – real? – people.
The result is a warm and engrossing film that brings these barely-noticed cogs in the tennis machine triumphantly front and centre.
I spoke with Scott over Zoom. You can see more of his work on his website.
Why did you want to tell this story?
I've played tennis my whole life and I've always watched it. A few years back I was watching Wimbledon, and I noticed a particular pattern that the ball crew did on the court between points.
That started the process, thinking about what this could be as a documentary.
Typically every year, a couple of correspondents from either local news or the Today Show will come and try out for the ball crew and see if they can make it themselves. And so it's often this very silly, goofy kind of news report.
With this, I wanted it to be funny – I was definitely searching for the humour in how seriously some of these people take this seemingly on-the-margins entity.
But I thought it could be portrayed using some sports tropes, like the intro with Harry walking into the arena, looking up at the stands, and feeling the swell of everything.
You think he might be a player, you know? And then the lower third comes up, “Ball person since 1989.” And that's the whole thing – giving these peripheral characters the athlete treatment.
I think if you look at the films I've made, there tends to be a focus on what's going on at the margins of things. That’s true of Commute, and of Visitors, my film about the Area 51 get together in the desert.
Even in the documentary film that I did with J. Cole, for HBO a few years back. I was focusing a lot on the people around him, who create the experience that we all know as the guy, J. Cole.
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about why I’m drawn to these things. I was born in West Virginia, lived there for the first couple years of my life, then lived the bulk of my childhood in New Orleans, from like two to 14.
Between 9th and 10th grade, we moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. So I lived in these different places, and even in Charlotte, I went to two different High Schools.
Because I've had some variety in my upbringing – going to different places and being around different types of people – I think that's facilitated an interest in things going on in different parts of my environment.
Even in my social groups, I have individual friends from many different parts of different communities, as opposed to one big group of friends that I'm always hanging out with.
What were the biggest challenges?
Every film is difficult, but this one was interesting because I had the idea, but no characters.
I didn't anticipate how quickly the try-outs happen. They take place over three days, but it’s like 30 minutes, max. People are coming and going, and so we're shooting and casting at the same time.
If somebody jumped out to us, we would ask them if they would be open to doing an interview with us before they left.
But I didn't want to be following the characters all the time. I wanted to bring some of my narrative filmmaking style and sensibility to this nonfiction work.
What I mean is capturing moments, static, without the camera moving. So it feels like we created it, even though it's an actual moment that's happening.
A good example, and one of my favourite moments in the film, is when Sal, Rob and Harry are talking after the try-out day is over.
It’s a really wide shot with the three of them in the bottom of the frame. Arthur Ashe is looming large on the right side. We framed it super wide and just let the action happen.
It's such a cool moment because it feels to me like it could be in a narrative film. Just the framing of it and the dialogue, and even the light was beautiful, coming in late in the day.
Is there anything you’d do differently?
There’s one moment that jumps to mind. We were reloading the camera and Harry was talking to a group. One of them was like, “So when I stand, it's like this” and Harry just looked him up and down and he was like, “Yep, that’s good.”
It was a really funny moment where he was scrutinising his stance. I remember seeing it happen, and really wished we’d captured it. That’s why you’ve always got to be rolling…
What are you most proud of?
I think we did a really good job at recontextualizing some sports documentary tropes in this particular way, which I really like.
But I’m also really happy with the storytelling of it all. These characters all have a very clear desire, and there's an arc to the story. It's simple, but in the story logic of the film, the dramatic question is – are they going to make the team?
I'm really challenging myself to focus as much as I can on the characters and the storytelling of my films. And I think the last few I've done have been more refined in that trajectory, and it’s something that I'm hoping to get even better at.
That's important to me because visual styles and aesthetics come and go, but great characters, great stories, last forever.
How did making this film change you?
As joyful as I tried to make it, it was probably the most challenging film that I've ever worked on. There was a period where I was like, I really wish I did not start down this road. It definitely tested the limit of what I was capable of doing.
So I don't know what it changed in me, but I definitely learned that I have an iron will that’s pretty unwaverable.
And it showed me that it really does come down to me – or any filmmaker – having to care more than anyone. There were many moments where this could have just completely dissolved into nothing. And I didn't let it.
I’m trying something a little different in this issue. Usually the films we feature are a few years old, and I like the different sort of interview you get when the director has a bit more distance from the project.
But this film is brand new, and I realised speaking with Scott that there’s a different, but equally intriguing, value in the immediacy he brought to our conversation.