Benedict Redgrove’s beautifully hypnotic film about how a tennis ball is created

Photographer and filmmaker Benedict Redgrove has created this wonderful three-and-a-half-minute film for ESPN, which captures the process of making a tennis ball at the Wilson Factory in Thailand. Each ball in the factory goes through 24 steps, and the hypnotic operation sees the balls germinate from taut rubber sheets rotating on a machine into fluffy, fluorescent spheres of bounciness, all stamped with the Wilson logo.

Benedict is a master of tight, technical imagery and the film is beautifully composed with many frames so perfectly executed the stills could easily become a series of photographs in their own right. Set to nothing but the dull murmurs of the factory machines and sweeping actions of the staff, no score is needed for the process is melodious enough.