# Opportunity for Phoenix Members



## LavaASU (Jan 2, 2011)

Hello Everyone! I am a Technical Director for Lighting Audio Video Arts at Arizona State University. Lighting Audio Video Arts, better know as LAVA, is a student-led and student-crewed production group that provides support to the over 700 student groups on the Arizona State University main campus, as well as a wide variety of university and community/school functions.

LAVA originated in early 2010 after a group of dedicated students recognized the value and need to internalize production—both in the interest of providing students a unique opportunity to gain experience in a professional capacity providing sound, lighting, video, and production support to clients, and also in the broader interest of creating a sense of place and engagement through enhanced event quality and easier access to production equipment that is commonly used on student events.

In its first year, LAVA has taken on a huge role in the university, leading production for the 3,000 attendee Relay for Life event spotlighted in the September issues of FOH and PLSN Magazines. LAVA has also been the production support behind the Game Day Initiative—a large tailgate established from the highest levels of the university– the 5,000 person Passport to ASU event, a performance by comedian Charley Murphy, the Holiday Pet Festival at Westworld, and numerous smaller events on average of 2-3 per week.

Along with our active Production branch, we also have an Education branch which holds several seminars with industry professional each semester. These seminars, as well as most classes and special events are free and open to all ASU students as well as area high school and community college student (and really anyone with an interest). The seminars and many classes are hosted by local professionals and companies who donate their time to host a class, either at their location or at ASU. If you are interested in being added to our email list for Education events or presenting a seminar or class, please email LavaAsu[at]gmail[dot]com.

LAVA is supported almost exclusively through the ASU Student Government and local and national production companies, distributors, and manufacturers.

Periodically I'm going to post events/classes/seminars that may be of interest to the greater Phoenix production community. If you are in the Phoenix area and are interested in our group, please email us at LavaAsu[at]gmail[dot]com for more information or to be added to our email list.


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## LavaASU (Jan 3, 2011)

I'm also curious if anyone has or is in a group like this at their college? We're fairly new (as far as the group-- the other TD and I have been doing production work for 5-6 years seriously) and are pretty much figuring it out as we go.

Pros, what do you think about the group?

Thanks!


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## soundop (Jan 29, 2011)

Are you guys an organization that is open to any one, or do you guys hire. the reason I ask is my old school had a similar organization, and they ran under the schools orginzational guidelines, however the operated like a corporate company, hiring students, and living others out who had done audio/video/lighting in hs


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## LavaASU (Jan 30, 2011)

soundop said:


> Are you guys an organization that is open to any one, or do you guys hire. the reason I ask is my old school had a similar organization, and they ran under the schools orginzational guidelines, however the operated like a corporate company, hiring students, and living others out who had done audio/video/lighting in hs



Anyone can join and work with us. Currently none of our crew or staff is paid, however hopefully staff positions will become paid in the nearish future. Crew positions are typically limited to ASU students, however most classes and other education events are open to anyone. We also occasionally have shows that require large numbers of volunteers and are open to anyone on our email list.


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## bdkdesigns (Jan 30, 2011)

Sounds like pretty much a simplified version of what my grad school offered (The University of Montana). UM Productions has students working on the initial contact of a talent all the way through the end. I can only think of one major concert that went through Missoula (Elton John's second time in a years span) that didn't go through UM Productions. They hire students (paid) in the different full time positions needed (Director, Marketing, SM, Concert Coordinator, etc) as well as the crew needs of each show, all of which pay real money and not work study money. All of this originally spawned off of the Entertainment Management certificate that is offered at the university.


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## LavaASU (Jan 30, 2011)

bdkdesigns said:


> Sounds like pretty much a simplified version of what my grad school offered (The University of Montana). UM Productions has students working on the initial contact of a talent all the way through the end. I can only think of one major concert that went through Missoula (Elton John's second time in a years span) that didn't go through UM Productions. They hire students (paid) in the different full time positions needed (Director, Marketing, SM, Concert Coordinator, etc) as well as the crew needs of each show, all of which pay real money and not work study money. All of this originally spawned off of the Entertainment Management certificate that is offered at the university.


 
That's kind of the idea/ end goal, except that we would like to continue offering free to cheap production support for the charity events/ small groups that don't have any money. Basically we'd like it to become self sufficient, and pay the crew, basically using the money from the larger events to subsidize the smaller ones. However we aren't quite there yet . However we're moving pretty quickly given the fact that this was started by several students as opposed to the school.


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