…otherwise known as the post with significantly fewer photos. My camera battery died yesterday, so I'm forced to try and supplement the day's recap with some borrowed Flickr photos and the dazzling visual stylings of my writing. Buckle your seatbelts - this is going to be a bumpy ride.

Blame a newly decreased confidence in my writing abilities on yesterday's terrific TCFF Film School session with screenwriter and U of M professor Jim Burnstein. For those not in the know, the festival is offering a daily "film school" this week from 1-4 p.m. at CenterPointe, covering all of the various aspects of the film industry. After attending yesterday's class, I can assure you unequivocally that this is the best $3 you will ever spend. Right now, some poor student in California is bussing tables to pay off his $100,000 film degree from UCLA, and you can get lessons firsthand from some of the best in the business for a whopping weeklong total of - wait for it - $15. Use the difference to tip your waiters when you make it big in Hollywood.

TCFF Film School: Screenwriting Session

Coming from a family of writers and writing teachers, I tend to come to writing classes with a dangerous and completely undeserved expectation that there's not much to be taught on the subject that I haven't already read or heard. Within five minutes, Jim had neatly dismantled all of those prejudices. What was great was not only the hard-and-fast, easy-to-remember rules of screenwriting he shared - "Somebody wants something badly and is having difficulty getting it," "Simple Emotional Journey," "The solution creates a bigger problem" - but how Jim was able to wind in specific examples and clips from films to bring his points home. It's not often we see the actual screenplays of the films we love, but when you do, it gives you a completely renewed respect for the process of screenwriting - and in my case, a restored and healthy sense of my own lack of talent. To the screenwriters of Hollywood - a tip of the hat to you all.

After film school, I headed downtown for a bite to eat and a screening of "The Answer Man" at Lars Hockstad. The venue was packed - so packed, in fact, that I had to make an elderly gentleman on the aisle using a cane stand up so I could grab the last open seat in the venue, which incidentally, makes you feel like a terrible human being. But I think he forgave me once the movie started, because "The Answer Man" is easily one of the funniest, warmest films you'll see at the fest this year. I try not to gush, but folks: I loved this film. Except for one dangerously saccharine moment near the end, the movie exudes an almost pitch-perfect balance of snark and sentiment that garnered an equal amount of big laughs and misty eyes in the theater. Great cast, great writing - highly recommended.

"The Answer Man" Poster

I finished up the day with some last-minute schedule juggling so that I could go see Steven Soderbergh's "The Girlfriend Experience" with some friends at Milliken Auditorium. It was an interesting flick - a non-sensensationalized, practical look at the day-to-day life of a high-end escort. What it's like to have a dating relationship when you work in this business? What's your career trajectory? Do you need a business plan? Along the way, snippets of conversation and client worries provide a very real time capsule of the current economic crisis, the recent presidential election and other present-day events. While Soderbergh isn't for everyone - his last shot almost dares you not to take the film seriously - there's some really great subversive and unconventional stuff happening here. Worth the watch - especially for the discussion it will generate afterward.

Still from "The Girlfriend Experience"

On the docket for Thursday: Screenings of "Waterlife" and "Big Fan," a TCFF After Hours concert (Egon and Luke Winslow King at the Loading Dock), and hopefully, more photos. Stay tuned!