5 More Questions with Travis Wood
An exploration of workplace diversity or the lack there of, “Affurmative Action” is based on an unfortunate observation made by director Travis Wood while trying to land a job. We asked Wood how he started in filmmaking, what his favorite part of the process is, and a recent film he’s loved…
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
I’ve been skateboarding for most of my life, which got me into making skate videos. From there, it’s kind of the classic skate filmer getting into other types of filmmaking story. I studied journalism at college, which I think plays a big part in the kind of films I’ve made.
2) What’s the backstory here - what was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?
I briefly lived in LA and when I got out there I was looking for a job, so I was checking out these team pages. I thought it was funny to see extremely homogeneous teams with their dogs, so I sent it to my sister and then posted it on Instagram. People thought it was also funny and ridiculous so I just posted a few more I found while on the search. After that it just became a more active search for these pages and a google doc with tons to choose from.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And generally what part of the creative process do you enjoy the best, and the least?
This was probably the easiest film I’ve made yet. I got held up a little with the music, at first I was searching for songs, then found one I loved and couldn’t get permission to use it. In the end, I worked with a composer, Brendan Moriak, who really came through. I love the parts of the process where the project starts to feel more tangible, usually that's the shooting/editing/animating time. I guess my least favorite part is when the project just doesn’t turn out, I’ve had my share of finishing a film and being like “damn, I would not watch this movie” that’s always a bummer.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
Under the tree, it’s an Icelandic dark comedy. It’s an amazing script and seems like a fairly low budget movie. They did a great job at making it super tense and I always love seeing a film that inspires me to go make something.
5) What’s next for you?
My good friend from Minnesota works for an airline and is putting me as her ‘travel companion’, I’ll be able to get free/cheap flights, so hopefully a lot of traveling coming up!
As for movies, I wrote a short script for a live action film. I haven’t really made much traditional type films with actors, cinematographer, locations, etc. so I’m hoping to give it a shot with this one. If anyone wants to help, hit my line!
