Ball Turner

[Frank S]

What's with the backwards lathe-ing? Is there an advantage or is it so the camera can see things better?

Probably because in the beginning he was turning the ill regular shaped chunk of metal. This would have caused the chips to fly away from him.
There could be another reason as well. Interrupted cuts are slightly more stressful on smaller lathes than larger ones by turning the back side for the initial process this would place the cross slide in an area which is deeper on the carriage, and not in an area less frequently used possibly reducing chatter.