Marliss Weber, originally from Olds, and her husband Randy Brososky are now filmmakers, and their web series Necessary Evil is being screened at multiple festivals and nominated for 14 awards in several countries.
Both Weber and Brososky got their start in the industry as actors, which didn’t go the way they had hoped it would.
“We both started our lives wanting to be actors. We went to the same theatre school, slightly different times and both of us had mixed results,” Brososky said. “Steven Spielberg wasn’t calling either one of us.”
The series they produced together is about a low-level demon, Azmodeus, who works at Hell LLP (a Hell-like business office). Azmodeus is mysteriously promoted to CEO and faces all the challenges that come with that.
The series is connected to previous projects the couple has made in the past, such as The Hellevator Project and Recruitment Hell. That same character Azmodeus, played by Brososky, is featured throughout the various projects.
From the start of development, it was important to Weber and Brososky to capture a hell-like setting within an office space for the audience to resonate with.
The series was funded through Telus STORYHIVE, a program that supplies funding creators in Alberta and British Columbia.
“It was really kind of miraculous if you will. Telus STORYHIVE just happened to pop up right when and where we needed it,” Weber said. “We needed a small amount of seed money to get it started and Telus came through with their program.”
They say their series has been gaining notoriety across the globe at festivals in Seoul, South Korea; Bilbao, Spain; and Houston, Texas; so they are feeling rewarded for the hard work they put into the series.
“I think it’s incredibly rewarding to see that our little idea actually has some resonance with people who are from around the world. It goes to show the universality of the challenging co-worker and full-time job.
“It’s exciting to see that this concept has legs and that’s given us a lot of confidence and a lot of validation that our idea has value,” said Weber.
The couple won’t be able to travel to all of the places where their series is being recognized but is happy to be able to make a few appearances to promote their show.
“We’re trying to be selective about it,” said Brososky.
After the show has done its festival and award run Brososky says there are two ways they could go moving forward.
“We have sort of a two-pronged approach. Prong A is to try and sell it for television. Use this as a proof of concept, get a network, broadcaster or whatever to say ‘let's turn this into a TV show’ that’s full-hour, 10 episode seasons,” Brososky said.
Their backup plan for it if there are no interested parties is to keep doing the show as a web series because much of it is already written.
“Whenever you can add some awards and nominations to your resume it just helps to garner a bit of attention,” said Weber. "So we’re hoping that potentially some of that spins off into knocks on the door from broadcasters.”
The show is available to watch now at necessaryevilseries.com for free.
