Posted by Sean Blake January 18, 2009 at 5:40 p.m.

Sundance Part Deux Day 3

Our movie’s second screening was in Salt Lake City. This was my first chance to see our movie, "The Only Good Indian," with a large audience. The nice thing about screenings outside of Park City is that they tend to have more "regular folk" rather than industry insiders or film buffs. We sold out the theater once again.

Most of the time at the festival some tickets become available at the last minute -- because not everyone who purchases tickets necessarily attends. Some might have had last minute schedule changes or just didn’t get to the theater on time. You show up two hours before showtime to get on the wait-list for tickets. When we were here in 2004, we had many KU students traveling with us and helping us promote the film. They made it into nearly every screening they wait-listed. At our screening today, we had 50 people waiting for those tickets to be made available, but not a single seat was empty 15 minutes before showtime.

The film was well received by the audience-- with a majority of the viewers staying for the Q&A afterward. There were whispers among the crew of some big names taking a look at our movie, and the only downer of the day was a lukewarm review in one of the trade newspapers.

After the afternoon screening, the Lawrence crew headed back to downtown Park City to try out some of the local brews. A brewery at the top of Main Street called Wasatch Brew Pub was our first stop. Not everyone cared for the Polygamy Porter -- but I was quite a fan. An illustration on the tap showed a group of women gathered around the logo with the slogan “Why settle for just one?”

Aside from those velvet-rope, invitation-only parties, most of the clubs and bars end up with a “one in, one out” policy -- so they don’t exceed their fire-code capacity. If you have the patience you can wait outside for a chance to get in and mingle with the crowd, maybe for a chance to see some celebrities. In the club above us at the brewery, supposedly the lead singer for Counting Crows was in attendance, as well as members of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe. Some of the gang got in line for the club -- which had a reasonable $4 cover charge. The rest of us headed to the bottom of Main Street to check out the 3D gallery and the Music Café. We weren’t really into the DJs playing at the café -- and the $40 cover was a bit much, while the gallery had a huge line. Amazingly, one of the crew managed to get us a table for 10 at one of the restaurants and we enjoyed getting in from the cold.

Many of the gang had partied all-night the night before and were ready to call it an evening. My girlfriend and I decided to check out the Film Maker’s Lodge before heading back to town. Yes, we had been turned away the night before without tickets, but it never hurts to ask, right? Again we were asked for tickets at the door, so we were ready to leave. One of the festival organizers happened to be near the entryway and stopped us because she recognized the movie’s name on the festival credentials hanging around my neck. “Oh, you’re with Kevin’s crew?” she asked. I nodded, and she told the security guy to let us in. No cover, not too crowded and good music -- plus the ego-stroke of getting past one of those velvet ropes -- it ended up being quite a nice way to end the evening.