Richard “RB” Botto founded and runs Stage 32, the world’s largest platform for connecting and educating film professionals and content creators. Called “LinkedIn meets Lynda for film creatives” by Forbes, Stage 32 boasts a member base of over 500,000 and features over 1,000 hours of film craft and business related education taught by over 500 industry executives across the globe.
RB is a working producer, actor and screenwriter. As a producer, his films have played at dozens of festivals including Sundance and include the award winning feature, Another Happy Day and the award winning shorts, All Things Hidden and TAXII. As an actor, RB recently appeared in On the Corner of Ego and Desire which was shot in its entirety at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. His screenplay, The End Game, is currently in development at Covert Media.
RB is also the author of the first book on the subject of film crowdsourcing called Crowdsourcing for Filmmakers: Indie Film and the Power of the Crowd. The book was recently published by Focal Press/Routledge under the prestigious American Film Market (AFM) banner and has already become one of the publisher's best selling titles garnering over 50 5-star reviews on Amazon.
A sought after speaker and mentor, RB has been a keynote speaker and panelist at such festivals and conferences as Cannes, Sundance, Venice, AFM, Tribeca, Raindance, SXSW and Winston Baker, and has taught at institutions such as Harvard and Columbia University on the subjects of filmmaking, producing, film finance, screenwriting, social media, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, entrepreneurship and business.
RB has also been a guest on numerous business and industry podcasts including Entrepreneur on Fire, Mixergy, 5 O'clock Hustle, On the Page, Indie Film Hustle, Dave Bullis, The Filmmaker Podcast and Film Trooper.