Frequently Asked Questions

---

 Growing up, I was haunted by the ghost of a woman. When I told my mother, she said that as a toddler, I’d come into her room late at night and tell her there was a woman sitting on the foot of my bed. These encounters persisted, from seeing her pass by empty rooms or hearing her walking in the hallway, only to stop outside my bedroom door. One night, I felt her near me and began to question whether I might be wrong. What if these encounters were not paranormal visits but instead the machinations of a distant time traveler, sent back to watch us. And The Traveler was born.

 This is actually the fifth project we’ve worked on together but, funnily, The Traveler was the first script I sent her, long before we’d even started dating. She was very reluctant to read it out of fear that bad writing would “spoil her burgeoning crush” but thankfully she loved the script and eventually loved me! This film has been our passion for seven years. Producing it is what brought us together and all three of our children were born during its production. So, The Traveler is as much a part of our family as anything and we’re so happy to get it out into the world!

 I’ve always gravitated toward genre films, especially horror and science fiction, but The Traveler is particularly inspired by Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others, a favorite of mine. I knew I wanted to create a period accurate, low-light visual aesthetic so Fletcher (DP) and I relied heavily on The Witch for sculpting with fire light and The Invisible Man for composing for invisible characters as creative reference.

 For the first few years, our location was the biggest hurdle. With our limited budget, we had to rely on fully furnished, period appropriate (pre-renovated) locations but given our creative scope and crew size, every historical site was less than enthusiastic. After dozens of rejections, a location manager friend (shout out to Brad Reichel) put us in touch with Historic Richmond Town in Staten Island who were looking to branch into film production. We filmed four days of interiors there and one day of exteriors at Old Bethpage Village, 45 minutes from Downtown Brooklyn.

We ran a kickstarter campaign in 2022 that received an incredible response, surpassing our goal by 25% and raising $30k. After taking out a personal loan of $15k, we found an angel investor willing to match our $45k contribution. However, due to the SAG/WGA strikes, they backed out and we held a 2nd successful kickstarter campaign to cover post-production, raising $15k. The remaining $60k was self funded through increasing the personal loan, draining savings, tax returns, you name it! Our final budget was $119k.

 This film took 7 years to produce from finishing the first draft in May of 2018, until wrapping post-production in February 2025. After four years of finding our location, we began crowdfunding in 2022 to shoot in Spring 2023. After four days of interiors in November, we filmed exteriors the following February and VFX pyro-plates on Easter, 2024.. While months between shoots can be a deathnail for indie productions, we remained steadfast along with our dedicated crew and actress and we got this film in the can!

As a creator, there are inevitably areas I’d love to take new chances with, but honestly, I’ve learned so much making this film; directing talent, translating a creative vision, and executing a project from script to completion - that it’s difficult to look at the film with regrets. Our kickstarters were backed by over 250 contributors, more than 50 incredible artists joined us during shooting, and dozens of post-production professionals gave months of their time to edits, scoring, sound design, and over 60 VFX shots, that changing anything could risk losing their indelible imprint on the film