Jav Rivera

As a multimedia artist, Jav Rivera has produced projects as an editor, recording artist, writer, director, voice artist, photographer, cinematographer, DVD author, mixing engineer, graphic artist, and multimedia trainer. He was born in Waspán, Nicaragua in May of 1976, the youngest of four. His family moved to Wisconsin in 1979 where Jav lived for over 25 years. Always the imaginative type, Jav takes great pride in the traits he has acquired from his parents. He states that he is a combination of his father's creativeness and his mother's organizational skills. He has been described as a focused, hard-working dreamer. In 1999, Jav earned his Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. His first paid work as an editor was for a wedding videographer in Milwaukee, WI. Soon after, he began working in the central office as Media Production Technician for the Kenosha Unified School District in Wisconsin. In 2005, he earned his Masters of Education from Carthage College. His dissertation entitled "Fifth Grade Students' Attitudes Towards Learning Tasks and Knowledge of Native Americans Using Video Production" focused on students learning by use of technology. That summer, he moved to Austin, Texas and began working for a public access television station. There, he developed and trained media-related courses on video production equipment as well as his in-depth course on Final Cut Pro. During this time, he had been writing new music and by early May of 2006 he released his debut album entitled "From The Ground" under the name Tino Ghost. In 2007, he began working in the television department for the Austin Independent School District. That year he also released his award-winning film The Scare: The Mansion of Terror Documentary (2007). In 2008, he wrote a children's book about depression entitled Sometimes I'm Sad (2009) illustrated by Hui Min Liu. By early 2009, Jav had directed a film adaptation of the book with Ashley Ramirez as the voice of the lead character. In August of 2009, Jav completed work on another children's book entitled Luna (2009). Originally written in 2001, Luna was shelved for over eight years until he was motivated by a friend to bring the book back to life. As he did with Sometimes I'm Sad, Jav directed a film adaptation for Luna, this time using artwork by illustrator Raz Ortiz and voice work by Noell Coet. Jav moved to Los Angeles in the Spring of 2010 and by September he had produced his third children's video entitled "Circus Dreams" with Hui Min Liu. And after recording new music in 2009 his second album "Until Autumn." was released on October 10, 2010 (again under the name Tino Ghost). In late 2010, he was hired to edit (and co-produce) a comedy web series entitled The Murdererers (2010). He was also asked to assist in the edit of a Western short entitled Soldier's Horse starring Mark Arnold. In early 2011, Jav was hired as Lead Editor for the NBC television series The AOF Channel; he was later promoted to Post Production Supervisor. He also released his third album entitled "3" in April. During that time he had also been writing and recording new music for a new album entitled "Almost Alive" (which he planned to release under his own name for the first time). In the middle of this process, however, he was hired to assist the editing department for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Afterwards, Jav briefly moved back to his hometown in Wisconsin where he developed a web series for children entitled Toilet Paper People (2012). The series, created on a whim with the help of his nephews and nieces, was made specifically for the YouTube generation. It was short-lived, and something that Jav may come back to in the future. That winter (December 4, 2012) he released a compilation album entitled "Trading Noise For Attention" as a free download on NoiseTrade. The double album contains previously released music from his first three albums, as well as demos and outtakes. By the summer of 2012, he moved back to Austin, TX. He released his long-awaited fifth album "Almost Alive" on November 12, 2013 (11-12-13) to positive reviews. Later that year, after re-recording a song from his debut album, Jav decided to release an EP with new versions of his Tino Ghost music. The EP, entitled "Ghost", also contained two new tracks and was released in July of 2014. Jav continues to work on new music but no plans for a new album have been made as of yet. In the fall of 2015, Jav put aside is personal projects and began working at a university. He now focuses his time training as well as producing educational videos.