Have you ever wanted to know what it's like to attend the Sundance Film Festival? For over three decades the Sundance Film Festival has premiered some of the greatest independent films ever made, all from a tiny mountain town in Park City, Utah. Films like Clerks, Reservoir Dogs, The Blair Witch Project, Saw, Little Miss Sunshine, Napoleon Dynamite, 500 Days of Summer and Sex, Lies and Videotape were all born at Sundance, and this year has welcomed another crop of potential indie classics into the cinematic fold. (For more on this year's most buzzed-about Sundance movies, check out our recap.)
So what's it like to spend a day at one of the world's most famous film festivals? Come with us -- we'll show you...
When you wake up in Park City, the first thing you need to do is grab your trusty Sundance water bottle, which the fest hands out every year. Because of the high altitude -- this is a mountain town, after all -- you need to stay hydrated at all times so you don't get sick. Here's what this year's water bottle looked like. Meet your new best friend.
We have a busy day of movies ahead of us, so it's time to start planning. Every day festgoers use this handy Sundance guide to figure out how to manage their schedule.
Once you figure out what movies you want to see, it's time to head out. The festival provides an assortment of color-coded shuttle lines that travel throughout Park City.
The shuttles are usually pretty packed and slightly uncomfortable, but this is where you're going to learn about all the best movies. On almost every shuttle you'll find lots of lively conversations, so expect more than one stranger to ask you what you just watched or what you're about to go see.
Today we decide to take a quick detour to Main Street (see below), which is this quaint little street full of mom-and-pop shops that's completely transformed into the hottest place in town during the festival. Major companies and brands rent spaces to show off their products, throw parties and generally have a good time.
We head over to Sundance's New Frontier section, which is reserved for experimental projects. This year it's all about virtual reality, and we immediately find ourselves sucked into a virtual reality-based companion piece to Reese Witherspoon's Wild that literally makes you feel like you're sitting right alongside Witherspoon and Laura Dern inside the movie and on the trail.
It's this really emotional piece that tells a story by constantly switching your point of view, and it makes us excited to see how this technology will be used to enhance our experience of other films in the future. (p.s. How cool do I look with that virtual reality headset on? Wait, don't answer that.)
Before we leave the New Frontier, we grab some Google Cardboard (see below), which is this very inexpensive (like less than five dollars) pair of virtual reality goggles made of cardboard. You can take them home, download an app, strap your phone to the holder inside and experience the future!
All that virtual reality made us hungry, so we head over to Main Street's iconic pizza joint, Davanza's.
Everyone who attends Sundance does their best to have at least one meal at Davanza's. It's tradition. Our meal looked something like this...
Now that our belly is full, it's time for some movies! We hop back on the shuttle and head over to the Library theater to see a movie called The D-Train, starring Jack Black and James Marsden (pictured below alongside the film's directors and cast). It's called the Library theater because when it's not Sundance, it's an actual library. As such, the makeshift theater is cozy and intimate, which allows you to get all up close and personal with the stars at the postscreening Q&A. (For more on The D-Train, see our buzz recap.)
We don't have much time to get to our next movie, so we race to catch a shuttle over to the nearby Eccles theater. As we digest Jack Black and James Marsden's hilariously unusual bromance, we take a brief moment to enjoy the views outside our shuttle windows.
The Eccles theater is perhaps the most famous theater at Sundance. It hosts all of the festival's biggest premieres, but from the outside -- and inside -- it doesn't really look like any movie theater you go to. Check out the lobby...
That's because the Eccles is actually a high school, and the theater they use is the high school's main theater. Yes, some of the biggest and most important indie movies of our times haven't premiered in a glitzy Hollywood setting, but at a local high school. How cool is that? Here's what it looks like inside...
Don't get used to it being empty, though, because the Eccles fills up fast and sells out all 1,250 of its seats at pretty much every screening.
This particular movie is called Sleeping with Other People, and it's an absolute riot. (Read more in our buzz recap.) Following the movie, stars Jason Sudeikis, Alison Brie, Jason Mantzoukas and Adam Scott join writer-director Leslye Headland (Bachelorette) onstage for a hilarious question-and-answer session where Headland claims her film is basically "When Harry Met Sally for a-holes."
We leave the Eccles and head back to catch another shuttle, but when you're surrounded by such beauty you tend to walk slowly. This is what Instagram was created for, folks.
It's starting to get dark out, and when the sun goes down at Sundance... well, that means it's time to party. We head back down to Main St. to join some friends at a toga party celebrating a documentary about the history of National Lampoon, which produced classics like Animal House and Vacation. Doesn't Main St. look a lot sexier at night?
Something not as sexy? How about yours truly in a toga...
Of course it wouldn't be a proper National Lampoon toga party without Animal House's Otis Day showing up to sing a little "Shout."
Finally, after a long day of watching movies and dancing in togas it's time to... watch another movie! Sundance is famous for its Midnight section, which is full of all kinds of spooky genre films. We head up Main St. to the historic Egyptian Theater, home to many midnight movies throughout the years. This year's Midnight section includes films like Eli Roth's Knock Knock and Cop Car, starring Kevin Bacon.
And as we pass through its doors we're tired -- like, really tired -- but once we settle into our seats and begin to anticipate the premiere of a new film we know next to nothing about, we slide back and smile because we wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
So who's coming with us next year?