As we sat in our small circle going around sharing ideas, round and around we went brainstorming. We weren’t set on anything quite yet and then Bianka mentioned Latin Night at The Graduate. All of us looked puzzled and confused. “What is Latin Night?” We all asked. Bianka went on to explain, “The Graduate has a night dedicated to Latin music called Noche Caliente”, similar to line dancing also held at The Graduate. Seeing that all of us had no idea that this event even existed besides Bianka, we decided to dance with it a bit.
Where oh where to start? Luckily Bianka acted as our guide. We set out and began story boarding. What types of photos should we take, how will we capture video, who do we interview, when is the event, and what is the general view of the event. Thanks to Abby, she helped to create our story board to get us going (story board). With Abby’s story board, Maddie set out to gather interview questions. What do we really want to know about Noche Caliente? Maddie included questions that would help give people a general sense of what the event entailed and what it’s really about ( interview questions).
With interview questions in hand, camera in another, our group set out to Noche Caliente to show not only our journalism skills, but our dance moves as well. A regular attendee, Manny Aguirre explains why he enjoys attending this night filled with dancing, “But when I go for Noche Caliente, we walk in, we get on the dance floor and we don’t really step off the dance floor until we leave and that’s what makes Noche Caliente special for me”. Here is a peek of what Noche Caliente is and what it’s all about (Video/peek). The night was filled with laughter, dancing, and above all else a great time with great people.
Our play time was over and the real work began, with just one interview left, editing, and writing our team worked hard to piece our story together. As we ran down to the wire we hit a speed bump. Abbie sent us a message in the group chat saying, “Yeah he never got back to me…”, our final interview, the DJ had flaked out. The next day Maddie sent a message saying, “They’re not getting back to me. Might just drive to The Grad today and see if I can talk to anyone”. I think we are all a bit stumped like Nicole said “Hmm that’s so strange”. Not only stumped, but it was definitely stressful. Regardless of our speed bump we were able to sort it all out and pushed forward. Down to the wire with still a few more things to edit we danced our way to the finish. It was fun to cover something that most of us in the group had no knowledge of and it opened all our eyes to a new world. With so many fun events sometimes other events get overshadowed and Noche Caliente is definitely a hidden gem.
