My full, uncut Radio Film School interview with Richard “RB” Botto, the CEO and founder of the creative arts social media juggernaut Stage 32.
As you know, Radio Film School is a documentary series. It’s kind of like This American Life or TED Radio Hour, but devoted specifically to filmmaking and the creative arts. As a radio documentary, you seldom, if ever, hear full interviews of my guests. I just pull from each interview the soundbites and clips I need for any particular episode.
But every now and then I’ll make a full uncut interview available as a bonus. And after I finished my interview with Richard Botto (or RB for short), I knew I had to post this baby.
If you heard last week’s Vol. 2 of my Quentin Tarantino regular episode, you’ve already heard part of my interview with RB. But naturally, we go far beyond what you heard. As most Radio Film School conversations go, this discussion was more about the art and soul of filmmaking. We cover topics like:
- How do you go about separating the artist from his or her art. Can you look at Woody Allen or Polanski films the same? Can you admire DW Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” for its technical achievement despite its racist tone. How do you feel about John Ford the filmmaker or Lilian Gish the actor knowing they were in that film (Ford actually plays a Klansman).
- We discuss fan films and what role they should play in today’s filmmaking landscape
- We get into why Citizen Kane is his favorite film and whether or not it really deserves the title “Best film of all time.”
- We geek out over what makes a good sci-fi film
- That state of fan filmdom and whether or not they should continue
- And of course, we talk about some effective strategies for using social media in this biz.
It’s over an hour of inspirational goodness.
Music used in this episode include:
- Getting Paid, Part II and I Don’t Think by Alec’s Band (CC BY)
- Boulevard St. Germain by Jahzzar (CC BY-SA)
