It’s Day 5 and I just feel like I’ve gotten my groove on. I think I’ve seen 10 movies and I have one more today. Power watching films is a skill, and I haven’t yet developed those chops. Since most people at the screenings I attend are all film people — writers, buyers, sellers, programmers and filmmakers — everyone has an immediate opinion either good or bad. There are no so so opinions. There is a lot of love and hate.

I’ve had really high expectations for some films and when they don’t live up to expectations there is a bigger let down here than they is in the NY screening room. And in NY we never talk afterwards. Here everyone chats even if you don’t know the people.

This place feels like summer camp for film people. The key is pacing yourself, having a lot of caffeine, drinking a lot of water and trying to get a veggie and piece of fruit each day. But you have to seek those out. They are not everywhere. They all know each other and the feel is quite casual. People take meetings in casual clothes and lots of deals and connections are being made over wine and beer.

And a comment of the life of a writer at a festival — while it’s fun to see this many movies in such a short time, it’s also really hard work. I have written a lot in the last 4 days and done interviews and prepared for interviews. Everyone is working from 6am-midnight. We are all emailing each other at all hours to confirm screenings and meetings. It’s not all beer and wine.

Also, there is a whole other world of the celebrities with the premieres and the parties and the swag suites and I have no idea where any of that is. It’s like I am at a different festival. I see all the reports on the news about a party with Bono and George Clooney and one report had Angelina was in town, but for all I saw, the whole thing could have been taken place in a different city. At a drugstore the clerk saw my festival pass and told me she wanted to see Angelina. I said, me too.