Sorry for the late reply, but yes, I'm happy for any and all who are available to chat with me in a few minutes. The Zoom link is https://nylife.zoom.us/j/4876068075?omn=98248345703 Kevin On Thu, Feb 5, 2026 at 12:25 PM Benjamin Ricket <bricket@olin.edu> wrote:
Kevin, Thanks for getting back to us!
For starters, we’re still definitely happy to interview you about your filmmaking experience so long as you’re also happy to talk — we’re still near the very start of this process, so any perspective you’d be able to give us would be helpful.
Sorry for both of our groups reaching out at the same time — we’re trying to make sure we don’t double-email anyone, but we had a bit of a miscommunication on our end and weren’t aware we both reached out to you. We’ve talked with Jasper’s group, though, and he’s happy to have of one of us hop on the call if that sounds good to you.
Best, Ben, Henry, Tchenzie, Jake, and Liam.
*From: *Kevin Tostado via Filmmakers.cdgroup.2026sp < filmmakers.cdgroup.2026sp@lists.olin.edu> *Date: *Thursday, February 5, 2026 at 3:10 PM *To: *filmmakers.olincd@gmail.com <filmmakers.olincd@gmail.com> *Cc: *Kevin Tostado <kevin@tostieproductions.com> *Subject: *[Filmmakers.cdgroup.2026sp] Re: Collaborative Design interview with Olin College students?
Hello Team!
I'm happy to be of help. To be transparent, I made a career change back in 2023 and I am now a financial advisor with New York Life/Eagle Strategies rather than a full-time filmmaker. I do still have my production company, but it's largely dormant at the moment and something I hope to return to when my kids are quite a bit older (I have 3 under 10 years old).
That said, I'm still more than happy to share about my experiences as a filmmaker. After seeing what's involved with your interview/questions, I can also reach out to some other colleagues who might be interested in participating as well if you need more interviewees.
Feel free to select an available time on my calendar using this link for ease of scheduling: Schedule a meeting with me <https://calendly.com/kjtostado>
Also, it looks like there might be two UOCD groups with filmmakers as their area of focus? I know I've already scheduled an appointment with a team that has Jasper, David, and Bertrand on it, and those names don't show up on your list of team members. If that's the case, very cool and I'm excited to see what you each come up with!
Sincerely, Kevin
---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Olin College CD Students <filmmakers.olincd@gmail.com> Subject: Collaborative Design interview with Olin College students?
Hello, We're a group of 5 sophomores at Olin College interested in talking with independent filmmakers for our Collaborative Design (CD) class at Olin. We'd love to talk with you and get any insight in what the independent filmmaking process looks like, what challenges you might face, and any other information that you think may be relevant, and would likely be aiming for an interview of about an hour, though we'd be able to adapt if needed. At Olin, we've been finding value in our school's focus on human-centered design and consciously designing for good in the world, and this connection to Olin is partly why we're interested in reaching out to you. As students (and per our course policies) we're not able to provide any compensation, though we'd hope that you find it valuable helping us practice the human-centered design process. At the end of this process, we're hoping to generate a design proposal given what we've learned from the independent filmmakers we engage with. Thanks, Our CD team (Jake, Ben, Liam, Tchenzie, Henry)