Special Report: The Travel Companion (2025)

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Hey, folks, welcome to a special episode of The Projection Booth. I'm your host Mike White. On this episode, I am talking with directors Alex Malice and Travis Wood about their new film, The Travel Companion. They recently played at the Tribeca Film Festival. Should be playing some more fests coming up.

Movies so new that they don't even have a trailer or for it, but at least they've got a poster. Well, it's a logo. Enjoy the logo, Enjoy the interview. Thank you so much for listening. Alex and Travis, thank you so much for joining me today.

Obviously I want to talk to you about The Travel Companion, but I'd love to hear a little bit more about you and your guys' history. I mean, because you've been both making films for a while now. So Alex, can I start with you? What's kind of your background in filmmaking? Like a lot of people.

Actually it's not such an uncommon story. I got started through like action sports, basically filming, filming my friends and having them film me. Do you think the skateboarding, skiing and sort of shooting shooting stuff without quite knowing what is going to be done with it, like filming before I understood that editing was a thing and making movies was a thing. But you know, I think I had my first camera in middle school and kind of kept kept expanding and expanding. But it was definitely through that original path of like of skateboarding and skiing, because I'm from New England, that that got me into this idea of of documenting.

Just loved documenting. Did you go into film school or how did you start making movies? Well, so it's funny. I actually went to undergraduate University of New Hampshire for environmental science. I thought I wanted to be like a scientist or an environmental lawyer or something like that.

But while I was there, I actually spent most all of my time at the av Club. We had a like a student cable access TV station and if I wasn't in class, I was there just like pumping out hours and hours of just horrible, unwatchable content that I hope nobody ever sees. But that was kind of where I cut my teeth, and I think somewhere around, you know, halfway through, kind of moving even near the end, I was like, wait a minute, I think this is actually what I what I like doing more, And so I thought maybe I could do like video for for the Environment, for environmental causes, or like advocacy video. But then yeah, then I ended up moving to New York and getting an internship at this place in Union Docs, which is this documentary center in New York.

And from there it just kind of kept going more and more into filmmaking, you know, learning more and loving more, and eventually went to grad school and for filmmaking at Hunter College, and now I'm here this is what I do. And Travis, how about yourself? What got you involved in filmmaking? Yeah? You know, I think me and Alex sound somewhat of a shared background and ethos in that I started out making skateboard video others slipped my friends grown up and yeah, then you know, came in New York and thought, oh, I want to be a filmmaker, and you know, I got a job being a PA which I learned a lot, but you know, at a certain point, I was like, I feel like I'm not like making films, Like I feel like really not connected to it.

And I was like, Oh, maybe I want to make another skating video, and then I just stumbled into making my first documentary. And I think that was kind of when I got like more hooked or started to like get more into the storytelling element of it and just the like action sports element of it. And how did you two meet? We are both in this film collective called Meerkat Media, and so I joined and there's something like lots of people in the group and we all connected meet. But Alex specifically was working on this dock like right around when I joined, to call the Lappish Flatbush, and he was like, I'm looking for some help on this, and I'd be like we just connected on the post production of that and had a lot of fun and then we're like, oh, maybe we should see each oll them the next night, and the naturally getting towards this point where it's like, oh, let's like cod direct and like see this thing through together.

And how did the travel Companion come about? It's somewhat based off a true story. Yeah, I've been a travel campaign for several years and there came a point where I lost my benefits. And right around that time, I was with Alex at the IFF Boston Film Festival when we were screening a short Dock that we co directed at the Repeats Documentary, and I think we're just out to breakfast with his partner Dara, and I was like, oh, man, I think I think these benefits are gone, Like I don't know how many more flights I got before the switch is over. And Darrow was like, that is hilarious.

And then I think the rest of the chup and us and you're just walking around kind of thepong ideas about this film, and then we're like, yeah, like let's let's seriously do this, Like let's let's write this thing. This was your first feature that you guys both worked on together. I mean, what's that kind of division of labor when it comes to the writing and then the directing of it. There was three writers, West and Auburn was our third. He's a good friend and it was it was pretty wonderful to have three people.

It kind of took a lot of the pressure off. I think it's writing as any writer knows, is such a difficult process, especially when nobody's asking for it. You know, nobody's calling you every morning and say, hey, do you make any progress, or hey, you should really haven't done by this time. You know, I passion projects like this, but having having not not one, but two other people to create this kind of accountability network was extremely beneficial and it allowed us to kind of come together and spitball ideas, workshop ideas created, create an outline, and then delegates scenes. So rather than thinking, oh my god, you know, by the end of the week, I need to have thirty pages written or out some of a failure, actually you only needed to have a scene.

You know. We would delegate a scene and then come back together in a week and shared it around and maybe even pass the scene off to somebody else to do the next pass on it and really share. So the writing process was pretty smooth, and then when we were directing it was it was honestly equally smooth. Having two people to tackle any problem that comes your way was really empowering. I think a lot of people wonder like, how did you guys tackle creative decisions?

How did you guy? Did you guys always agree, And that's kind of the first thing that comes behind and that question makes sense, and I think kind of the boring answer is that, like we just that just wasn't an issue for us. We just really saw eye to eye on so many things, and if one person felt passionately, there was enough trust that we could just go with that decision. But I think the thing that I that's kind of interesting and reflecting on this is how we handled stressful situations, or how we handled difficult situations where it's not always clear what the right answer is. And in that moment, rather than having to be this like singular director who everyone's kind of looking towards for, you know, to make the decree as to what the correct path is, there was two of us and we got to kind of have have a wingman and have have somebody to kind of rely on and lean on when when the correct path forward wasn't always clear, And that was worth the price of admission.

Obviously, it's one thing to write a film. That's such a different thing to get a go picture. I mean, how does that come about for you guys? How do you actually make this into a real project? You know, we kind of were following some of the more traditional paths.

And it came a time where like I had a conversation one day with someone that I remembered having almost a year prior, and she's like, oh, yeah, I'm working on this feature. And then coming out of that conversation, I just texted Alex and Wess. I was like, let's set the shoot dates, like we have to make this thing, Like we can't. We can't end up in that app where you end up talking about something infinitely long, Like I really just wanted to make it. And once we had those shoot dates, we were just kind of like, we're making this no matter what, Like even if it's me and Alex are the main actors and we're like using the phone and a couple of friends, like we're just going to bake this.

And I'd feel like, luckily we don't have to do in that way. But it's just kind of having that like determination of like it's happening, I think helped get us get more investors, get more things, more grants, Like it just became a bigger thing, like kind of quickly once we added in our heart that we were making this, Thay it manifested. I'm just gonna say, it sounds like you guys willed this into existence. We did. We joke about that all the time.

We're like, if you just believe something hard enough, you know it sound it's kind of wishy washy. It's like something you tell a little kid. But like, man if that is not true. We actually one of the one of the characters in our previous short documentary, one of the subjects and the Dollar Pizza Documentary, he's eating pizza and where he's talking about pizza and then he said something like, just manifest your life, and things that are not possible will become possible. And I think when we screen that, there's like some times like a little bit of a like a chuckle in the crowd because it's not because he's wrong, but it just because it's like kind of cute.

But man if we don't kind of live that every day, that's like, that's truly our approach. I mean, Charis mentioned in the shoot dates it was like, we need to just pick shoot dates. And then the way that that changes the way you talk about the film, the way that you talk to others about the film. It becomes real. And when it becomes real, people want to get on board, and when people want to get on board, things start to happen.

Resources start to become available in ways that they weren't. Crew becomes available in ways that they weren't. Locations, even funding, all these things started to become real because we spoke about them like they were real. Tell me about the asking process, because obviously most indie films live and die by their actors even more than the direction, just because the performances are key, and you've got some great performances in here. Yeah, And we worked with an incredible casting director, Alan Scott Neil, who West and I had previously met at the a'll Secul Festival, and he just he's a professional, Like he really is a professional, great taste, and he just like brought us just awesome options and like really kept mining, you know, everyone that was out there to find like this perfect trio.

And so we got to give a lot of credit to him for kind of bringing this together and not even just the trio, all those I'll be kind of more, you know, supporting cast. He also held had Abbyhan there and they they're all so good. Yeah. One thing that Travis said to me or now in the process is like directing the best directing is going to happen at the casting stage, Like we need to find people who are these characters, who understand these characters, because if we don't do it there, it's going to be really difficult to try and make, you know, directorial changes on set or even in rehearsal. And so having somebody like al Scott Neil and then being able to talk with him and Travis about who these people are and get great options and people who really understood what the film was and what the dialogue was made all the difference.

What we got in the tape was the character. So I think a lot of it was just reminding them like where we're at in the story and kind of the vibe. But like I think as far as like bringing those characters to light, they really all brought that. Like even Anthony's tape, I just remember being like, oh my gosh, this is the best. I didn't even picture Bruce to be this good, and it was like wow, Like I was living blown away at the tape.

So then we got to set, it was just like so yeah, just kind of do do your thing and we'll kind of, you know, help where we can. I was curious about directors who like these stories of directors who like pull their actors aside and they're like, imagine you're a baby bird and your mother has gone for or done for food and you're all alone. We didn't do a lot of that stuff. It was mostly just, like Charlis said, helping people remember the context of the scene there and and the energy that they should have. But they were so talented we didn't We honestly didn't need to do a whole lot.

Were there any bad things that happened on the shoot? Any challenges? I mean, this is the first time shoot for y'all. I mentioned it had to be a little bit of an odd experience. Yeah, I mean it was certainly a sprint.

I think with every indie film, it's like there's more pages to shoot than there is like time in the day, and so I felt like there was certainly days that come to mind where it was like hard to even really sit with the scene, you know, I feel like because you're like you're trying to watch and reread the moment, but then you're thinking, like, okay, we just got to like get this sweep and like run and do this next thing. And so those were the most stressful days for me is where we just felt like it was like not enough time to fully trust or like know exactly how it landed for you in the mobith and just kind of having to jump to the next thing. You know. We had an amazing team. Our ad E, Sarah Kalin.

She took the scripts and the locations and worked it into a schedule that was brilliant. It was so thoughtful, and it took into account where the actors would be in their journey on the film. It took into account exhaustion level, it took into account, you know, the obvious things that ad should do, and it was just so skillful time of day and so having that map to follow was critical. Same thing with our DP he you know, it was really insistent upon shotlisting. He, Travis and myself went out and shotlisted like crazy and had this you know, big shooting schedule, and our production manager, Jay Ellis, she was just like always a step ahead, and so a lot of the shoot was pressed for time as any indie, but it really felt like we were just going step by step and we had this map.

So it felt like, you know, I felt lucky with the smoothness that we were able to achieve at so many different stages when on productions in the past have been crazy, and I was just like, I really hope it, I really hope it doesn't turn out like that. And we really managed to avoid a lot of that like classic titfall of an indie where you're just sort of doing it live as they say. Yeah, I definitely kind of shout out Sarah and just most days honestly did go like we have the plan and just executed him perfectly like that big shout out to Sarah. Tell me a little bit about your post production process? How did that go for you?

That was also very smooth, Like you know, we I think we manifested so many good things and our post production was one of them where our good Breton Brian Chang is just you know, so good at editing and comes from this documentary background, which I think just makes him work a bit faster than others. I don't want to I don't know, it just all like it happened so fast and so smooth, where we started getting him footage during the shoot and it wasn't too long after we wrapped that he had us over and we just sat down and watched it edit and I was like, oh my god, we have a movie here, Like he really but in that work to bring the scenes to life, it was not a rough cut by many means. Like I think that first view, you know, there's there's music, there's some sound design, there's things that really make you feel like you are just watching watching the movie.

Yeah, we went fast. I really like that. That is something that I didn't totally realize at the time, and in hindsight, it's crazy. We wrapped in November of twenty twenty four and we premiered last week in June or twenty twenty five, and so to have that, like like Travi set, we had a rough cut and then we had a fine cut, and we were submitting and we were accepted, and then we're making DCP, then we're premiering, you know, doing all the post production is just like it's fast and I am not mad at it. It's definitely a satisfying feeling to be able to not have to sit on something for a long time, which I think is usually the case with any film, short or features, Like you finish it and then you'll wait six months or a year before you even know what the next step might be, but for us, it's just been like one thing after the other, and I don't think that would have been possible without Brian's Brian's skill and speed.

When's the first time you get to watch this with an audience. We had a small rough cut screening with the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, which was very enlightening, with a sort of extended you know, some of fine cut or an advanced rough cut, but no one really saw it until that premiere, you know, anyone who didn't. The only people that saw it were the people that worked on it in posts, you know, sound and color. And then that was our first time watching it with the big crowd, and it was it was crazy. It was it's a wild feeling.

I'm trying to like, it's hard to put words to but when you watch something one hundred times, which we did, it takes on a different shape. You know, you're not you're obviously not seeing it for the first time, and the way that the performance is hit and the way that the story moves, it's a it's a much different feeling and you kind of lose touch with that. What fresh eyes and so sitting in a theater, a big theater, at Tribeca with you know, hundreds of people friends, family, and strangers in the audience. You suddenly feel this new feeling again. It's almost like a shortcut to watching it for the first time where you feel you kind of like feel the way that it plays.

And that was almost it was a little jarring for me. Honestly, I enjoyed it immensely, but it was it was a strange feeling. I was just like so happy, you know, I watched it next to my sister, and I think just even you know, you hear a lot of stuff in the room, but honestly just hearing her chuckles and her thoughts and her little commentary and like, you know, I feel like she was even picking out something about like in the Alex and White that she's like, oh, I know these strokes because I know you guys, And that was just yeah. I just felt so proud and happy and grateful for that moment. When did you guys officially start working out of this project?

When was that conversation about you losing your travel benefits? That was April twenty twenty three? Was that festival, Alex, You are not wrong. This thing seem to have come to life so quickly. That's wild kind of speaks to this mentality that we had that actually we had on our previous short documentary, Dollar Pizza Documentary, and the philosophy for that really quick was let's run to camera for two weeks and that's our shoot window, and then let's pick three weeks and that's our edit window, and that is what we will do.

It's kind of like a backwards approach with documentary, where it's normally the glows shoot till we have it. But it worked amazingly and it kind of took the pressure off and sort of inverted the dynamic. And we did the same thing with this feature, where it was like our main, our big goal was to make this. We wanted there was nothing that was going to stop us from making this, and it happens relatively quickly. You know.

I want to speak to the power of accountability just in like pushing something forward, like I think having Wes and Alex like in the writing process, just starting off wards, like you know, maybe I'll be comfortable with this pointing out, but I can't disappoint Wes and Alex, Like I got to get my part done, and so I feel like we kind of found this dynamic early on in writing that we were able to bring to the producing element, which was like, hey, here's what we need to do, and we're checking in on Friday. So I feel like those emails going out, those follow ups, those like location is it's like we always kind of were like week by week able to just push it forward with like this like would be three heads and so that I think is what made it happen so fast.

Like if it was just me, I know, there's no chance we'd be sitting right here. And it took like all three of us being kind of committed to each other and not letting each other down every week. What's next for you? What's next for the film? And what's next for you guys?

The film will? You know, it's a bit of an unknown. The indie landscape is not as flush with cash as it used to be, or so we hear. So we're just you know, we're knocking on doors. We're we're right now or in the moment, we're at Tribeca and we're celebrating the film and trying to get as many eyes on it as we can, and we we're eyeing some future festivals.

A couple are starting to fall into place, and we've got some ideas for international premiere and hopefully a robust national run and then distribution, and we kind of we want to give it the best life we can, as any filmmaker would, and so we're working through that process right now. And then next Traus Snyer working on a new feature. We're writing a new feature together called Watching Fire. It's actually there's a little bit of an easter egg in the film which we created as maybe as like a bit of an accountability if it exists in this first film, while we certainly have to make it. Now he when he's walking into the theater, our character there's a marquee, a movie marquee in the name of the film.

We entered into the marquee as the name of the film that we're working on. Now we're working on that one, and we'll see, we'll see how fast, if if we can go as fast as we did on this one. Now shoulderinally got to try. Yeah, we hear about the expected out of films at this scale or from this you know, INU Landscape, but I think we're both excited to be like we are the exception no matter what comes next. I feel like we can continue to manifest, you know.

I think we're gonna have have all the things that every every bigger film as and I'm excited for the for the journey of that. Is there a good place out online for people to keep up with you guys and keep up with the film in cases playing near them. Yeah we have. You know, we're doing a lot of social media at the Travel Companion Film and it is the same op website so ww dot Travelcompanionfilm dot com. Everyone on socials every day, so we're out there.

Yeah, we're on Instagram, The Travel Companion Film. Alex Travis, thank you so much for your time today. This was so great talking with you guys, and thank you for making The Travel Companion. I had a great time watching it. Why, thank you so much.

This was a really this was a pleasure. Thank you. Yeah, this is great. Thank you man. No man.

One of us two roams surfree with a smile on his face, a heart full of please. He's traveled every road, sailed every seed. But the time is real short, Cassie, always take care the b don't be shine. For the world. It ways travel high and by