Raf Santana - Screenwriter and Producer #322
Raf Santana on Persistence, Setbacks, and Finding Identity as a Screenwriter
Host Savia Rocks welcomes Raf Santana, a screenwriter and producer, to season seven of the Us People Podcast to discuss legacy, trauma as potential transformation, and creative persistence without judgment. Raf recounts growing up in Brighton with a single mother, shifting from ambitions of veterinary work to photography and film school, then learning producing and pitching through early missteps, Cannes experiences, and years of development with little payoff.
He describes writing after reading poor scripts, securing and losing representation, making two short films with his brother that earned BAFTA nominations, and repeated project setbacks from competing productions and collapsed co-productions. Raf shares how paid commissions helped him finally claim “writer” as his identity, details a near-breakthrough Amazon Studios deal that fell apart, taking time out to learn leathercraft, then joining a Cambridge University creative writing master’s, writing a novel, and returning to screenwriting.
He advises creatives to be consistent, offers contact via IMDb/email, and the episode closes with calls for kindness amid perceived online hate and lyrics about political conflict and misplaced compassion.
00:00 Podcast Intro Teaser
01:10 Meet Raf Santana
02:09 Brighton Roots and Vet Dreams
05:13 Photography to Film School
08:24 First Producing Hustles
09:45 Cannes Lessons and Setbacks
14:14 Switching to Screenwriting
17:17 BAFTA Shorts Breakthrough
23:51 Industry Momentum and Near Misses
29:57 Resetting Projects and Survival Jobs
34:36 Persistence and Writer Mindset
37:23 Life Experience Fuels Writing
39:02 Owning the Writer Label
41:41 Adapting a Hidden Gem
43:59 Talent Versus Industry Access
46:32 When Deals Collapse
52:08 Leathercraft Reset Year
53:05 Cambridge Creative Writing
54:57 Genie Novel Reality Check
01:00:17 Consistency Over Greatness
01:02:47 Where to Find Raph
01:05:59 Final Thanks and Sign Off
01:06:38 Outro Song and Kindness
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-r-santana-348279246/
Website: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm1034899/?ref_=nmovr_nv_usr_profile
Thank you so much Raf for talking to us about why we should never give up, no matter what life may throw at us, we all deserve to be on our pathway and journey - Savia Rocks
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