'Will The Machine' Generates Over 1M Views In A Month

In April, Will “The Machine” premiered at the Beverly Hills Film Festival and continued on the film festival circuit across America. Now, in December, the short from Kent Lamm has generated over 1 million views since being released on Youtube through Omeleto in less than a months time.

Photo: Kent Lamm

Will “The Machine” is the latest project directed and written by Kent Lamm with help from  co-writer and star of the film, Chris Fornataro. The short film is based on a feature written by Fornataro and shows the duo’s fascination with high functioning dysfunctional people and explores the question of talent versus discipline. Fornataro’s background as a D1 athlete offered the experience and expertise needed to create a grounded story of an elite high school athlete. Will “The Machine” is a portrait of a young man controlled by strong ambitions and his never ending pursuit of his goals to the detriment of everything and everyone else in his life.

Originally set to film in Los Angeles, real life events helped to further shape the short film including the switch of location to Lamm and Fornataro’s hometown of Richmond, Virginia. “We planned to shoot the film in Los Angeles, where we live today. But the white nationalists’ rally in Charlottesville in 2017, and the resulting tragedy, was very top-of-mind for us,” Lamm tells Close-Up Culture in an interview. “We started thinking about racism as a mirror to Will’s insecurities and dysfunction. Once we realized the film could also be an allegory for the history of the city around the Civil War, we knew we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to explore those ideas through Will in our hometown.”  

Photo: Kent Lamm

The film also stars 4WT collaborator Denzel Whitaker as Joe, a rival of Will in terms of skill, speed and strength and whose introduction rattles the already obsessive Will.  “Denzel ended up being an amazing cast, as he brought this natural, friendly grace to his character that was a perfect counter to Will’s tense, awkward rhythms,” says Lamm. As a filmmaker himself and executive producer of the short, Whitaker was also a big shaper of the film from the script through edit. Whitaker is currently working on a new short film titled 5150 with 4WT Media.

Will “The Machine” is available to watch now.