Every other year, the entirety of LASA gathers outside during advisory to shoot a massive film throughout the campus. Since 2013, the Lip Dub has been exciting LASA students enough that even during COVID-19, students came to school on Fridays to record their part of the Lip Dub.
The LASA film teacher, Vanessa Mokry, believes the Lip Dub brought the LASA identity back together during the pandemic that had separated the school. She explained that it gave students a sense of community and purpose during an otherwise isolating year.
“The only time people came to school that whole year was to shoot their bit for the Lip Dub,” Mokry said. “It was almost like it was the only thing people cared about that made them feel like they were part of LASA again.”
The Lip Dub brings the whole school together, especially the advanced Audio and Video Production (AVP) film students. While most people are standing out in the sun for a few hours, the film students work for months to organize a video that’s a few minutes long. According to LASA junior and the director of the 2025 Lip Dub, Kate Bondar, the film students do much more than just organize the Lip Dub.
“We are the people to make it happen,” Bondar said. “We are the people to clean it up.”
Mokry explained that the Lip Dub has gotten increasingly more difficult to film with the growth of the school. It was much easier to film 12 years ago when the school had only 800 people. Now, with the school being closer to 1500 people, it is harder to get the entire school to cooperate.
“So the first one, we were half as big,” Mokry said. “The school was less than 800 people, now we’re huge. It’s gotten harder, and we weren’t even sure if it was gonna work. Then we kind of started thinking, got better, we kind of got very ambitious.”
LASA film student, Adrian Martinez, stated that “Mr. Blue Sky”, the Lip Dub from 2019, and the 2023 Lip Dub were key in shaping this year’s filming process. According to him, lessons learned from those past videos directly influenced the planning for this year’s production.
“For example, we didn’t like that they ended in the front,” Martinez said. “So, a lot of the planning and pitching was centered around how we could end in the field.”
The process of making the Lip Dub is long; according to Martinez, it begins at the beginning of the year. The process starts with choosing a song, then Mokry allows the advanced AVP students to pitch their ideas on what the video should look like. This year, three people pitched their idea for what the filming and song should be, and Mokry picked the pitch. Bondar has made some changes to the Lib Dub this year, most notably the way that this Lip Dub will be recorded.
“We split the video up,” Bondar said. “The first part would be very clearly edited, while the second is not. It’s very obviously different.”
According to Mokry, the LASA Lip Dub has become a massive event that students are excited for. Especially the advanced AVP students who always make the final choice on whether or not the video should be filmed.
“There’s nothing set in stone in my contract that we have to do it,” Mokry said. “But for some reason, the students always say that they wanna do it.”