When my team and I met for our first brainstorming session to find a compelling story, we had a few great ideas, including doing a feature on Slo Motion Film or a story about the Sunset Drive-In. While these ideas were interesting, we kept coming back to one story that captured our attention: the trapeze structure hosted in front of Madonna Inn.
If you’re a Slo resident, it’s almost guaranteed you’ve seen this setup while driving on the 101. My team and I had seen it many times and wanted to know more, assuming that other Slo residents were curious about the contraption as well. We discovered that Circus Vargas, a traveling circus, has been putting on high-flying trapeze classes in Slo since November, as well as contortion, stretch & balance and aerial hoop classes. According to one of our sources and co-owner of Circus Vargas Nelson Quiroga, these classes have been their primary way of transitioning in light of COVID-19. “We’ve been having challenging times now with COVID because we’ve been closed already for over a year,” Quiroga said. “But, we found a way here at the Madonna Inn to still be able to entertain people outdoors doing the trapeze experience, so it’s been really a blast and a blessing that we have this place to do what we love.”
To begin our dive into this story, I got to work on our backgrounder, which involved doing a morgue search, a competitor search and a social media search. I found out that while Mustang News hasn’t reported on this story yet, our classmate Kathrine Lane has produced a package on Circus Vargas that included interviews with the owners. There have been many stories on the circus throughout the years by various California city newspapers, providing some insight on their status and influence pre-COVID. Currently, the Tribune and KSBY have written similar stories on Circus Vargas’s transition to offering trapeze classes in front of Madonna, giving us inspiration for what we could add to our own article as well as ideas for photographs and B-roll. Additionally, Circus Vargas has a strong social media presence with a large following, showing the community’s heightened interest in what they have to offer.
Our team member Evan Pettingill was in charge of our audio and visual components. Given the nature of this story being highly visually compelling, Pettingill was originally set on using a GoPro to acquire footage of the trapeze classes. However, due to difficulties we had accessing campus and borrowing equipment, we couldn’t rent a GoPro in time and had to improvise.
“With the interviews we got I was able to put together a video that I think gives a more in-depth look at Circus Vargas and the classes they offer. It was really easy to get good video because there was so much going on during the classes,” Pettingill said. “When I was grabbing quotes from the interviews I was looking for responses where there was emotion in regards to the classes and instructing.” Our video component turned out great with exciting B-roll and impactful quotes, providing a clear window into what these trapeze classes are like.
Yasel Hurtado was in charge of developing interactive pieces for our story. As well as pictures like our featured image, Hurtado developed this incredible collage (shown below), depicting the overall aesthetics of Circus Vargas and Slo mixed in one art piece.
“Working in the interactive portion of this story was fun because I was able to have creative freedom, particularly with the free choice component. I decided to create a collage to represent Circus Vargas’ legacy and all the important elements that make up their art,” Hurtado said, reflecting on her experience with creating interactive components for this piece. This artwork captures the eyes of readers and spices up our story very well.
Grace Smith was in charge of the written aspect of our story – bringing multiple elements together such as background research and source interviews. She accompanied Pettingill to witness a trapeze class where our interviews took place, speaking to Circus Vargas owners, trapeze class participants and instructors. Smith did an incredible job weaving together the multiple perspectives our sources offered us from this story, all while creating fluid imagery of the trapeze classes in action and proving their relevance and benefit to the Slo community.
“The story process for me was really fast faced and required me to be organized and proactive. Luckily we had a really fun and interesting topic so I enjoyed doing the interviews and witnessing the trapeze class,” Smith said. “It was also really cool to be able to go to the event in person and speak to my sources face to face. I’m really happy with how the story came out and how we all worked together to make an awesome project.”
Our team is very satisfied with how this story turned out, showcasing strong written, audio, visual and creative elements that blend together well. We’re excited to share this story about Circus Vargas, delving deeper behind the intriguing contraption Slo residents see when they drive past Madonna Inn and providing the community with more information about this amazing business and opportunity.