Last fall, Emerson Independent Video (EIV) approved the production of Hell Inc., an action-comedy miniseries about two demons tasked with escorting the souls of the dead down to Hell. Unfortunately for them, they are terrible at their jobs; in the first episode of the series, they accidentally send two souls up to Heaven instead and must spend the next several episodes trying to correct their mistake. Season one is set to premiere in Spring 2024 on YouTube and production for season two has already been greenlit and funded by EIV.
Riley Roper, a junior VMA major at Emerson College, and one of Hell Inc.’s co-creators, directors, and logistics EPs, is a personal friend of mine. This past February fellow Eye editor Chloe Rattee and I were able to interview him alongside several other members of his executive producing team. Roper got his start in film as a sound recordist on Speedwell, a sci-fi adventure series also produced by EIV, and as a writer on Culture Shock, a show produced by Emerson Channel, Emerson College’s other production house.
Working on Speedwell was a defining moment for Roper.
“They were a huge inspiration to us,” Roper said. “If [they] were able to make their project, then we could totally make ours.”
Ty Ferro, a junior VMA major and fellow co-creator, director, and creative EP, also worked on Speedwell. Prior to Hell Inc., Ferro’s role had primarily been in front of the camera rather than behind it.
“What I mainly love to do is act,” Ferro said. “With Hell Inc., it’s given me my first opportunity to direct and produce at the same time.”
Ferro has taken a number of roles during his time at Emerson College, in addition to performing as Satan in Hell Inc.
The idea for the show came to Roper in a dream about two demons in an amusement park. After bringing the idea to Ferro, the pair initially tried to create a comic book inspired by it.
“We started developing it more and more,” Roper said. “And it changed from an amusement park to a business place, or like an office space. And that's kind of like the allegory of what hell is in the show. It's just a bland-looking office filled with cubicles, because that's what hell is, in my opinion. In comparison to that we made heaven into a nightclub where it's like a party and everyone's having a ton of fun. And we kind of spun that into this big, long sort of comic book series that we outlined in one night. We wrote down the whole comic book series, and then we decided that we wanted to pitch something to EIV, and we adapted what we wrote as a comic book series towards a three-episode miniseries.”
Jenna McDowell, a junior VMA major who works as the director of photography and tech EP on Hell Inc., is responsible for capturing the story Roper and Ferro created.
“I love being behind the camera and I love cinematography,” McDowell said. “Ever since I was a freshman, I immediately went headfirst into EIV and tried to get on as many productions as I could, just to get experience behind the camera.”
McDowell’s first project was an EIV show called Pinewood Gardens, where she worked as assistant camera her freshman year.
“[This] was a really big deal for me because freshmen don’t usually get offered that role,” said McDowell.
After Pinewood Gardens, she resumed her assistant camera role for the short film Lilies of the Valley and went on to become involved with several independent and senior BFA projects.
“It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year, beginning of [my] junior year when I started doing strictly DP (director of photography) roles,” McDowell said.
Becca Melkonian, a senior VMA major with a comedy minor, is the co-logistics EP, writer and the final piece to the Hell Inc. executive producing team. Melkonian’s first project was an EIV show called You Silly Goose, where she worked as a sound recordist and assistant camera. “And then I got heavily involved with the EVVY Awards,” Melkonian said. “It’s the largest student-run, multi-camera, live award show in the country.” It was while working on the EVVY Awards that Melkonian realized she did not want to work in live TV and her attention began to turn towards assistant directing and producing. After hearing about Hell Inc. from Roper and Ferro, Melkonian knew she wanted to be involved.
“I really loved the idea,” she said. “And [Roper and Ferro] were like, ‘You know, if we were to pitch we would need a third producer.’ I [said] I would love to be involved in any capacity. I designed the pitch packet and pitch documents, and we ran with it.”
The pitching process was a new endeavor for the Hell Inc. team, one they were not familiar with. Luckily, EIV offers a development program that proved to be a valuable resource, one they give a lot of credit to.
“If you’re interested in pitching, or even if you just have an idea, they’ll help you develop not only the idea, but also create the pitch packet. Our [pitch packet] is about thirty-two pages. It’s thirty-two pages of the logline, the synopsis, the episodic breakdown, and the budget,” Melkonian said. “If we didn’t have the development program, we would have no idea of what to turn in.”
“We probably would not have been picked up,” Roper added.
“All credit to [Melkonian],” Ferro said. “[She] just made a fantastic pitch packet. That, really, I think is 90% of what ended up getting our show greenlit.”
The pitching process was just the first challenge the Hell Inc. team faced during their production of season one. Booking locations for filming also proved to be difficult.
“It’s hard shooting a student production anywhere,” Melkonian said. “The courtroom gave us the most trouble. I had some connections who bailed on me. It was a lot of calling [around], and by the time we were getting answers, it was almost too late. We ended up shooting on campus and made this classroom look like a kind of courtroom. We made it work.”
Adaptability proved to be a valuable trait for the Hell Inc. team throughout their production, especially when it came to last-minute location changes. In one instance, the day before they were set to film in a bar, the team found out that they could not film on the planned day due to a fire inspection at the bar.
“We ended up shooting in my apartment!” Melkonian said.
“Businesses will let people shoot for some time, but then if students don’t clean up properly and make a huge mess, [the business] won’t want to let more students film there,” Roper said.
Fortunately, not all Boston businesses turn away student productions.
“I think it just depends on the person who owns the place,” Ferro said. “Freshman year, I filmed a thing at a flower shop, and the two women who owned the flower shop were so nice and sweet. It’s about finding those kinds of gems of people who just want to see your production succeed, because they support local art or whatever they think we're doing.”
Selecting the actors for season one of Hell Inc. was much less stressful than finding locations to shoot at. The audition process introduced the Hell Inc. team to the wide array of talent available at Emerson College and gave them the chance to work with a variety of different people. According to Ferro, some people clicked with the show immediately.
“The kid who’s playing Jesus, he just came in [and] sold the part,” Ferro said.
One aspect of the shoot that was obvious during our interview was the love the Hell Inc. team has for their cast and crew. Throughout filming, they were conscious of the needs of everybody on set.
“It’s really important to me that this set is fully accessible for anybody who wants to be a part of it,” Melkonian said.
“We try to keep the days shorter so people wouldn’t get too burnt out and for accessibility reasons,” Roper said. “Whenever we would have the time, we would fit a lunch break in the middle of the day, whenever it was most convenient.
“I think the best part of my day was getting to interact with every crew member and every cast member. [In] every picture everyone’s got the biggest smile on their face and they’re just having a great time,” Ferro said. “I like personally connecting with the crew and actors. There [are] so many people who just brought joy to our set. They just made it into such a fun place.”
McDowell is grateful to her assistant cameras, who worked with her to capture the creativity and positivity that was infectious across the Hell Inc. set.
“[They] were by my side every single day on set, helping me set up my camera and the rig,” she said. “And then, as we began shooting, they would change lenses for me between takes. There was also a day where I had a different obligation [and] I needed to leave early. I entrusted my camera to my assistant cameras and I ran through the shots for the day with them.”
Season one of Hell Inc. is currently in its final stages of post-production. Excited audiences can expect to see it on YouTube in early May. However, work for the production team doesn’t end there. EIV recently approved a second season with an even larger budget. Shooting for season two will begin in March and include some new faces, alongside returning cast and crew from season one.