By Katlin Sweeney

Features Editor 
It is the feeling that comes when you are surrounded by hundreds of people, cameras are documenting your every move and you are trying not to trip over the red carpet.  

You are not a celebrity, but being at the Academy Awards gives you a taste of what it feels like. Pulling up to the Dolby Theatre entrance, hundreds of limousines surround you.

You stand in line, walk through security and then find yourself at the beginning of the red carpet. While a rope and a dozen security members stand in between you and the portion of the carpet that is dedicated to conducting interviews and paparazzi taking pictures, guests still get to walk on the red carpet along with the celebrities.

You are greeted by the sounds of flashing cameras and hundreds of fans screaming the names of their favorite actors. While walking along, guests get a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on before the cameras start rolling. You see Mario Lopez and Kristin Chenoweth reading from the teleprompter for their respective networks, Rico Rodriguez from “Modern Family” standing in the crowds to keep their energy pumped and watch managers escorting their clients down the carpet.

Celebrities like Adele, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Chris Tucker, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Hugh Jackman pause less than foot in front of you to wave to their fans in the stands directly behind you. Some celebrities like Chris Pine even step over to your portion of the carpet to take pictures with their fans.

Others like Daniel Day-Lewis choose to walk on the side that is not bombarded by cameras, putting him less than two inches away from you. As you walk towards the end of the carpet, you find well-known television personalities like Kelly Ripa and Robin Roberts waiting to conduct interviews with anticipated award presenters like Halle Berry.

Since this is the part of the carpet where the rope ends, celebrities and the other guests are now able to walk side-by-side as they enter the Dolby Theatre. You find yourself bumping shoulders with Jennifer Hudson as you walk up the steps of the building and having seats next to the filmmakers who created “Life of Pi,” “Django Unchained” and “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

When the show starts, you experience Jennifer Hudson’s powerful voice first-hand, see the cast members of “Les Miserables” perform “One Day More” and hear Anne Hathaway’s acceptance speech. From the first balcony of seats, you are surrounded by a crowd jumping to their feet when Ang Lee wins the Oscar for Best Director for “Life of Pi” and can look below you to see Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence walking around to talk to their friends in the surrounding seats.

You learn that bathroom and snack breaks are restricted to during commercials, and unless you make it back to your seat before they end, you are locked out of the audience until the next break. After the show, you find yourself standing next to Oscar holders like Brenda Chapman, one of the two directors that won for Brave.

You get to meet Melissa McCarthy, have Eddie Redmayne walk past you while looking for his limousine and meet some of the filmmakers behind your favorite movies. Getting to attend the Academy Awards gives you a real look at how extravagant of an event the Oscars is and reminds you of how many people are attending the awards per movie.

 Just because some of these people are not sitting on ground level of the theater does not mean they are not vital members of the film industry. Sitting with these men and women gives you the opportunity to see the people that create the sounds, sights and costumes that make that movie you love so great.

While it is incredible to see the movie stars in person, the real magic lies within the people on the roped-off section of the carpet, the filmmakers that spend hours perfecting these films that give the actors a name. The Academy Awards is a whirlwind of an experience that looks dazzling on television but even better in person.

Editor’s Note: Katlin Sweeney attended the Academy Awards as the guests of two family members, who are members of the Academy.