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“Shooting in the Fall, Premiering in June”: Travis Wood and Alex Mallis on Their Tribeca Debut The Travel Companion
The Travel Companion Anxieties surrounding flight credits, male friendship and fraught filmmaking prospects fuel the bittersweet yet always amusing narrative of The Travel Companion, the feature debut from directors Travis Wood and Alex Mallis. Co-written by the duo alongside their Chicago-based buddy Weston Auburn, the rough gist of the story is mined from a situation that Wood personally found himself in. Long designated as his best friend’s “travel companion”—a perk granted to a friend or family member of an airline employee’s choosing—Wood realized that his coveted status was on track to be upset by his pal’s serious girlfriend.
As Wood avows, however, his reaction was nowhere near as erratic or cringe-worthy as the film’s protagonist, 30-something aspiring filmmaker Simon (Tristan Turner), who is faced with the same predicament. His best friend and roommate Bruce (Anthony Oberbeck of Dad & Step-Dad) works an administrative job for an airline out of JFK, allowing him to bestow Simon with the “travel companion” title. In turn, Simon often jets off to random destinations to shoot footage for his nebulous documentary project, which he hopes to eventually “find in the edit.” One night after participating in a disorganized post-screening Q&A, Simon invites fellow (though comparatively more professional) filmmaker Beatrice (Naomi Asa) to get a drink with him and his roommate. To his chagrin, Beatrice hits it off with Bruce, and the two begin dating. Almost instantly, Simon becomes obsessed with preserving the travel companion label, going to ridiculous means to try and convince Bruce and Beatrice that he is uniquely deserving of it.
A commentary on the fragility of male ego (Simon incessantly, though perhaps subconsciously, diminishes Beatrice’s success) and the hilarious indignities of making art in New York City (aptly, Joanna Arnow makes an early appearance), The Travel Companion is a prescient portrait of our current cultural tensions, emphasizing the struggles that befall filmmakers as everything—finances, community and good old fashioned good luck—ever dwindle in supply.
I spoke with Wood and Mallis via Zoom the week before their film’s World Premiere at Tribeca on June 5. Below, the collaborators delve into the surprisingly smooth process of helming their first feature, the good advice they received from In the Summers filmmaker Alessandra Lacorazza and their guerrilla approach to shooting in a local airport.
Filmmaker: Travis, I’d like to know more about the personal origins of this story. What compelled you to narrativize this experience?
Wood: I had the travel companion [perk] for many years, and there was a time when I was losing it. Me and Alex were at a film festival, IFF Boston, and I think I was talking about the impending doom of the lack of flights that would be coming into my life. Alex and his partner were like, “This is so funny, this would be an incredible film.” That was kind of the initial kickoff moment where I was like, “Yeah, let’s dive into this.” We started writing a script maybe within a few weeks of that festival.
Mallis: You forgot to mention the reason that you were losing the flights.
Wood: Yeah, my buddy had just gotten serious with his girlfriend. So we knew it was coming. Differently from the movie, we’re close enough friends that we didn’t really have to have a convo about it. He kind of just looked at me one day and was like, “I don’t need to say it, do I?” And I was like, “No, but where should we do our final hurrah trip?”
Filmmaker: What did you find yourself exaggerating or subduing about your life while writing the script?
Wood: The conceit of a filmmaker who’s losing flight benefits is maybe the most true part. But I think in a lot of ways, it was kind of about some of the different ideas that might pass through your head as you’re losing something. [Simon] started to stretch a bit farther to become a character made of like me, Wes and Alex. I think aside from it being about a filmmaker with a close friend who works at an airline and gets a new girlfriend, everything else was made up from there.
Filmmaker: Alex, I’m also curious about the specific touches that you and your other co-writer, Weston Auburn, brought to the table.
Mallis: This is Travis, Wes and I’s first feature, so this was our first opportunity to try out a lot of things and pull from our life experiences, which was a lot of fun. For example, the job that [Simon] has in the film is working for this taxi company, which really was my job. It felt like any time we needed the character to do something or go somewhere, the first place we would always look is our own lives. What in our own life might be most appropriate to project onto this character and this world? Writing a feature is scary and difficult and there are a lot of unknowns—Is this even possible? Will this suck?—and having something familiar to pull from really was helpful. It kind of took away a lot of the intimidation factor, in my opinion.
Filmmaker: In terms of collaboration, did you find yourselves all coming together for in-person work sessions? Or was it more so that everybody chips away at it on their own and then you guys send notes to each other?
Wood: Wes is based in Chicago and me and Alex are both in Brooklyn. I’d worked with Wes and Alex separately, so I was really excited that everyone hit it off and we all had shared sensibilities. We met up during key milestones. The first time was just going to a coffee shop to write, riff and come up with an outline. Then we’d basically just write different scenes, pass them back and meet up a couple of times a week. Then when it came time for the first full draft, we did our writing retreat, where we just went to a cabin upstate for three days. We were like, “No matter what, we are leaving this retreat with a full script.” And that’s what we did.
Filmmaker: Tristan Turner, Anthony Oberbeck and Naomi Asa play so well off of each other. How did you approach their direction? Was there any room for them to bring their own interpretations to the table?
Mallis: I would say that one thing that Travis and I are fairly aligned on is the role of a director on set. In terms of changing a character, we feel that’s a tall order. It’s our job to set the stage and make sure [the actors] understand the context. But the [actors bring] the actual energy and intensity. So much of that is contingent upon who they are and like the kind of actor they are before they arrive on set. Casting was just huge for us. That’s where we really put so much of our attention as directors. We had to make sure that these actors felt as closely aligned as possible to the way that we envisioned the characters.
Filmmaker: What were the characteristics that made you select these actors?
Wood: We worked with Alan Scott Neal, the casting director, who brought us tons of good options. The first time I looked at Tristan, I was like, “This dude looks like an experimental doc filmmaker.” His vibe encompassed that straight off of the rip. Then when he gave us a good tape and had some acting chops, it was just like that much more fulfilling.
Mallis: I think we were fairly hands-off with getting in the weeds of the characters. “These are their like memories from when they were 10 years old” wasn’t really the approach. They all read the script and they brought questions and we discussed it, but we were really open for them to make the character their own. All three of them did so in such a major way. I think it’s a magical thing, as a writer-director, to be surprised and humbled by the way that actors make [the project feel] new and fresh and alive. You work as hard as you can to make it feel real on the page, but once an actor starts to speak it, and their body, breath and movement is all there, their talent brings a new, exciting dimension.
Filmmaker: Tell me a bit about shooting in New York City, from dreary subway commutes to bustling bar scenes and even airport terminals. How did you navigate an indie sensibility with some of the red tape that inevitably comes with filming on location?
Mallis: We got some great advice from our good friend Alessandra Lacorazza, who made In the Summers. She said, “Shoot every single scene between two actors in a bathroom.” Meaning that you should have it be controlled, not chaotic. We took that advice to some extent. When we were writing the script, we were thinking about what is possible. Sometimes they say to just write exactly what you want—a car explosion or an alien spaceship or whatever. But we were actually actively thinking: could we? This is a park we know, or this is a bar we know, or this is a photo store we know; let’s write the scene there. So there was an imaginary dialogue, I guess, with potential locations that we had a feeling would be attainable based on our budget and our resources.
Wood: I mean, the airport [scenes] were definitely one thing that everyone we talked to flagged and were like, “How are you gonna pull this off?” We were lucky enough to find an airport that permits [filming]. We shot all of these scripted scenes at the Westchester airport, and they hosted us well. It took a little bit of pushing to get it done, but we stayed diligent and got in there and had a great shoot day. Then to supplement that footage, Alex went to the airport alongside Tristan on his flight outside of the city and just kind of did a little one-man DIY mission to get some other airport texture.
Mallis: Yeah, I bought a one-way refundable ticket to D.C. so I could get through security. The image in our head was that vloggers do it all the time, so why can’t we? I got through security and set up the camera. At first I had it stealthily in my lap to get just one shot. Then I was like, “Maybe I can put it on this small tripod and in the corner.” Then, “Maybe I can put it on the tripod in the main walkway,” then “maybe I can just do handheld, or put it on a gimbal and be stealth. You know what, maybe I can sprint full-speed through the terminal with this gimbal.” As the hours passed by, I got more and more brazen, and no one batted an eye.
I guess there was another fun anecdote that we should share. There’s a scene that takes place outside on a sidewalk on a commercial film set. Simon is supposed to go to this film set and have a conversation with Beatrice. We were kind of kicking the can down the road, like, “How are we gonna do that?” At first we thought we’d just put a couple of C stands, our director’s monitor and a craft table in front of the camera and hopefully that would sell it. It would be so great if we could get a box truck, which was too expensive. We thought about just going to Greenpoint where all the box trucks are and maybe just shooting there. But we kept delaying the actual solution to the point that the shoot was three days away and we just hadn’t addressed it. And then the day before the scheduled day, we’re shooting the apartment scene in Clinton Hill. On the exact corner of the block that we’re shooting on is a large outdoor commercial set with four box trucks and a bunch of surly grips carrying C stands, pushing carts and being grumpy. We walked over there with our handheld, the boom and everything and just started walking back and forth through the set to get this establishing footage of our character in the real space. Then the next day we went back to that same location and just shot the dialogue with a few little odds and ends. It connected beautifully with the authentic establishing footage that we had collected the day before. That was like, a moment of incredible serendipity.
Filmmaker: What were some obstacles you may have faced on the shoot?
Wood: The deli was our first shoot day. This is Alex’s local deli, and they were like, “Yeah, you can shoot in here, no problem.” Then the day-of, there was basically a miscommunication about how much we were paying to shoot at that location.
Mallis: We were told zero and they came at us with a much higher number. We were like, “Oh no.” But I think it’s just a testament to the work that we put in beforehand. Specifically Jalen Ellis, our UPM, was just like so on top of it. And Sarah Klein, our AD, was just like a master. We had this team that was just so professional. I felt really lucky many times that I could look over and know that so much was being taken care of and so many decisions were thoughtfully made, whether it came to locations or schedule or just order of operations. We were actually able to do everything on our to-do list. I don’t think there’s a single line that we had to cut for time.
Filmmaker: This story certainly feels tethered to this current place and time in the industry. I’m curious if the process of making this film, including having it selected for Tribeca, has added even greater nuance to what you’re exploring here about creativity, envy and anxiety.
Mallis: This has been an incredibly inspiring and empowering process. Travis and I, from day one, were like, “The top line here is nothing will stop us.” That really gave me fuel to believe that we can manifest anything if we work at it. We believed this film could happen at every stage. Sure, we got lucky in a number of situations, but I really feel like our confidence in ourselves and this project has proven to me that we can do anything if we just want it.
Wood: We really set out to make something that felt honest and true. Since making the movie, we’re both still occupying this world. We go to short film Q&As, we’re doing these sorts of things all the time. When I see the version of real life that we’re portraying played back to me in real time, that’s funny and gratifying. I’ve been getting a chuckle out of that more recently since making the film. Just like, “Wow, this art-life blend is really on point.”
Mallis: Yeah, that’s a really good point. The amount of conversations I’ve had on a subway ride with any number of my filmmaker friends that are comically verbatim to some of the scenes in the film: “I can’t get money if I don’t have an actor!” “What does it all mean?” “How can I justify being a filmmaker or an artist if I feel so precarious at every turn?” You can grab someone off the street and they’re gonna identify with that feeling.
Filmmaker: A really funny line in the film is Simon saying that he hopes to find his film “in the edit.” I’d love to know more about your experience working with your editor on the film.
Mallis: Bryan Chang, the absolute GOAT. His skill, dedication, ingenuity and creativity really made him the fourth writer of this film. He brought so many good ideas and it was an absolute pleasure. I think this is true of all productions, but really who should be thanking him the most is our three actors. They were amazing performers and they truly brought it every single take, but Bryan made him even better. The cuts he made and the way that he shaped scenes—he just kept sharpening that blade.
Wood: From the first edit, he started organizing while we were shooting. A month in, we watched a version. We just let him cook and then he handed us something and we were both like, “Oh my God, it’s a movie. It’s good. It’s watchable. I like that.” Then from there we kept saying, “Okay, let’s get it into fighting shape.”
Mallis: He’s the type of editor who will zoom in on certain things and give them almost a temporary final dressing. He’ll add a little bit of temp sound design in the rough cut, just because he’s like, “I want you guys to feel it.” It was easy to understand how in several passes this will get to the place [we want it to be]. So you can really enjoy the edit and get the vibe for it. And he is a fast editor. We wrapped principle in like on November 15th, and I think we had a rough cut in January. Is that right?
Wood: Yeah, like early January. Honestly, we had a couple pickup shoots that me and Alex would go do. It was so awesome to just drop a card off to Bryan and the next day you wake up to like a link in your inbox that’s just like, “Here’s the footage you shot. Incorporate it, I think it works!”
Mallis: The bulk of the real cutting was under 50 days. I think it was in the mid-40s. We were so lucky to get into Tribeca. It just feels like this turnaround—shooting in the fall, premiering in June—it’s such a privilege. We’re thrilled at the speed at which this is all happening, because filmmaking can be, as our character knows, such a long, arduous, thankless, invisible process that can take forever.
Filmmaker: Will the imminent future see more directorial collaborations between you both, or are there any plans to create work individually on the horizon?
Wood: I think I’ll speak for Alex and say we’re both pumped to make another movie. We want to get back in the writing room and do it again. I think co-directing can be tough in theory, but with a guy like Alex it’s smooth. It’s easy. He’s just a dependable, thoughtful dude who hears our ideas. I really do feel like two heads coming together just made everything faster. That’s not always the case, so I’m very excited for the next project. This one took all of our might to pull off between the two of us, so I don’t know that it could have happened if I was alone [laughs].
Mallis: I’ve done a handful of collaborations in the past and this one has really stood out as the most congruent. Travis has taught me so much at every step of this process and I’m extremely grateful. There’s nothing I would want more than to do it again as soon as possible.
