Richard Botto

Richard "RB" Botto has created the online platform and marketplace designed to democratize the entertainment industry, Stage 32. By leveling the playing field for all film, television and digital content creators and professionals worldwide, Stage 32 provides networking and training opportunities as well as direct access beyond the gatekeepers. Launched in 2011, the Stage 32 community has grown to over 750,000 entertainment creatives and professionals worldwide. In addition, Stage 32 has curated the world's largest educational library with over 1500 hours of webinars and classes designed to help all film, television and digital content creators and pros hone their craft and navigate the industry. RB is also a producer whose films have played at dozens of festivals including a Sundance-award-winning feature. He is the Executive Producer on projects with Gidden Media and National Lampoon. Through Stage 32 he has helped incubate Chick Fight, starring Malin Akerman and Alec Baldwin, produced by Yale Productions and Ramo Law, and 10-31, produced by Eli Roth and Orion Pictures. As a writer, RB works on active writing assignments and has two features and a TV pilot in development. As an actor, his latest film On the Corner of Ego and Desire premiered at the Raindance Film Festival. Additionally, RB's #1 best-selling book Crowdsourcing For Filmmakers: Indie Film and the Power of the Crowd, was published by Routledge under the American Film Market Presents banner, is available on Amazon and Audible, where it has garnered over 100 5-star reviews. RB has been a keynote speaker and panelist all over the world at such festivals and conferences as Cannes, AFM, Tribeca, Sundance, Raindance, Hamburg, SXSW, Cinequest, Austin, ITVFest, Portugal FEST, Trinidad and Tobago and Winston Baker. He has also taught at institutions such as Harvard, USC and Columbia University on the subjects of filmmaking, producing, film finance, screenwriting, social media, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, entrepreneurship and business.