Move Over Hollywood, Munich Is Calling

Jac Woods, a graduate of the College of Communication film program, almost didn’t bother to apply to the Munich Student Film Festival this summer. So she was pleasantly surprised to discover that she was one of two Americans selected to participate in the festival, November 15 to 21. The film she submitted, A Simple Taste, was a finalist in this year’s Redstone Film Festival at Boston University. The festival, sponsored by Sumner Redstone (Hon.’94), CEO of Viacom, showcases work by graduate and undergraduate BU students.

BU Today recently spoke with Woods (COM’08) about her film, the festival, and what she’s been up to since graduation.

BU Today: What made you enter the Munich Student Film Festival?
Woods: I’ve entered A Simple Taste in quite a few festivals since graduating. So when I received an e-mail from Randy Steinberg, the motion picture industry coordinator in the COM department of film and television, about the festival over the summer, I almost disregarded it. I thought I was finished with the film festival circuit. But Randy and John Bernstein, a COM associate professor of film, strongly encouraged me to apply. So I did, and now I’m incredibly grateful that I did.

Tell us a bit about A Simple Taste.
I received the Lauren Shuler Donner grant from the College of Communication to direct A Simple Taste during my senior year. I was very lucky to have some amazing people helping me turn this story into a reality.

We had about 18 people on the crew, most of whom were not receiving compensation or class credit for their work. My producer, Jullian Ablaza (COM’08), and I spent five months in preproduction: applying for the grant, rewriting with the screenwriter, Jessie Beers-Altman (COM’08), planning the shooting style with our director of photography, Nick Lombardi (COM’08), and going over detail after detail with our class. It all led up to three days of intense shooting. We would arrive at Rene’s Café at about 3 p.m. and work until about 5 a.m. We saw the sun come up a couple of times during that shoot. Then finally, after two more months of editing and quite a few dollars later, we finished our 14-minute short film. Phew!

What drew you to the film industry?
I’ve wanted to be in the film industry since I took my first film class in high school. I knew then that there was nothing else I could do that would make me as happy as creating movies. And that’s still true today, even when I’m working 18-hour days, six or seven days a week, like I have quite a bit since I started in the business.

Are you going to Germany for the festival? If so, what in particular you are looking forward to?
I will be going to Germany for the festival. The festival is flying me out there and putting me up for the time I’m there. I can only go for half of the festival, due to my work schedule, but I’m excited to be going at all. I backpacked through Europe after graduating college, and Germany was one of my favorite countries. I can’t wait to go back. Plus, it’s always exciting to me when people from all over the world can come together for similar purposes. Borders don’t exist during events like this. I’m really looking forward to the people I will meet there.

So what have you been up to since graduating?
I’m working as Ben Stiller’s on-set assistant on Little Fockers, the sequel to Meet the Parents. I have been really lucky because I have pretty much jumped from one production to the next since coming back to L.A. This will be one of two times since Christmas last year that I will have more than two consecutive days off from work. And I have to thank Ben for that. I wasn’t even going to ask if I could go to the festival, because I knew I would have to miss work and I love my job too much to jeopardize it. But when Ben heard through the grapevine that my film got into this festival, he said that of course I had to go.

Any advice for film students?
Wish it. Dream it. Do it. I have that saying lying next to me on my night stand and read it over every night before I go to sleep. It’s my motto for life, and I think it’s one of the most powerful ideas one can believe in.

But I know that’s not very tangible advice. So here’s this also: I believe that I’ve gotten to where am in such a short period of time for two reasons — I am a very hard worker, and I do all of my hard work with a big, genuine smile on my face. I think people respect that.

Nicole Rojas can be reached at nrojas@bu.edu.