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The Scene Room
The Scene Room Podcast spotlights the movers and makers redefining the performing arts—focusing on innovative marketing, leadership, and the importance of collaboration. Hosted by Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bowman, with a keen eye on audience trends and cultural shifts, the goal is to explore how artists and organizations are connecting with communities, shaping the future, and redefining what it means to engage and inspire.
The Scene Room
Michael Dobbin — Bridging Cinema and Streaming
In this episode, we sit down with Michael Dobbin, founding director of Quiet Revolution Pictures (Canada) and Peardrop Productions (UK), and founder of JustWatchMe.TV, a platform dedicated to elevating independent films. Michael shares insights on how the platform supports filmmakers by providing visibility and helping them navigate production financing—especially in the often-overlooked realm of Canadian cinema.
We also explore live screening capabilities, where audiences can host their own community-driven viewings, encouraging deeper engagement with stories that resonate. As technological advances shift the focus back to storytelling, parallels between the film industry and the performing arts become clear—both are finding new ways to connect with audiences in a digital age.
Tune in to discover how JustWatchMe.TV is redefining the streaming landscape and how the lines between film and live performance continue to blur, offering new opportunities for creators and audiences alike.
All episodes are also available in video form on our YouTube Channel. All episodes are hosted by Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bowman.
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Don't hesitate to reach out to us with guest ideas, information you'd like covered, or any ideas you might have—the hope is for this to be a continuous resource and dialogue with our listeners.
Visit TheSceneRoom.com for more information.
Hi, I'm Elizabeth Bowman and welcome to the Scene Room. Today I have a different episode for you. I am in the film realm. I have Michael Dobbin here. He's the founding director of Quiet Revolution Pictures and Peardrop Productions, and he has produced and co-produced over a dozen feature films, including Croatia's Oscar submission this year. Michael also produced and co-wrote Mitch Jenkins' sci-fi A Million Days 2024. He is the founder of Just Watch Me TV, which is a new streaming platform and also the focus of our conversation today. So let's get to it, Mike. Welcome to the scene room. Thanks for coming.
Michael Dobbin:Well, thanks for having me on.
Elizabeth Bowman:Why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you're doing and what's happening in your world?
Michael Dobbin:I think we all wonder who we are in the morning and in the evening. So my name is Michael Dobbin. My background is as a producer. I've produced many feature films independent feature films, international co productions. A recent co-production I was involved in was the Croatian Oscar submission this year. So I'm very active in production. But I also run a distribution company which includes Just Watch Me TV, which is a new streaming service. It's a little bit more than that, but we'll start with that in the intro because it's Just Watch Me TV, the streaming service.
Elizabeth Bowman:So let's talk about Just Watch Me TV a little bit. You're in competition with places like Netflix, Amazon Prime, that kind of thing. What makes you stand out from those huge companies?
Michael Dobbin:Well, first of all, I wouldn't say that we see ourselves as a direct competitor to Netflix or Amazon Prime or any of the bigger streaming services. We kind of see ourselves as kind of an add-on to those right. So the kind of content that we are programming we program a lot of independent film, a lot of Canadian independent film, non-english language titles, european titles, south American, asian. So we say yes to a lot of content and curate a lot of content that wouldn't otherwise be on some of those services. In some cases we have a title non-exclusively, meaning you can also find it on Prime or Apple TV or whatever, but we will also have it. We have films that were on Netflix that aren't anymore.
Michael Dobbin:So in a lot of ways, I think most people that watch their movies on a streaming service know they can sometimes find it other places. So that's sort of the first thing to answer. We're not sort of a direct competitor and in fact within the platform we link through to some of those other platforms. So if you find a title you really really like and you want to add it to your Apple library, there's a click through, it'll take to your store and you can download it and buy it. And part of the reason for that is we want the filmmakers and the producers to get the sale Right and for us, if we get the traffic, that's going to help everybody. So we'd love it if people watch everything on our platform exclusively. But we realize that'd be a bit presumptuous of us to think that no one else is going to watch any content anywhere else do you have a mandate to showcase canadian content?
Michael Dobbin:so we do. Well, it's sort of a self-appointed mandate, like we're a canadian based company but we stream all over the world and, and we really feel that within Canada anyway, there's a real gap in the market for places to watch Canadian content. Some of the broadcast streamers do, but they don't necessarily broadcast outside or stream outside of Canada. So it does give us a really great opportunity to acquire Canadian content to show in other territories as well. And I think, more importantly, as someone who cut their teeth in the Canadian industry, I love to be able to say yes to people, to be able to help people, especially with great projects, developing talent. So we don't actually have any kind of imposed mandate by any third parties, as you have to show Canadian content. We're not a broadcaster, for example. So it's just because we see that as a need and a gap in the market and we hope that we can fill that gap effectively.
Michael Dobbin:One of the interesting things is we within Canada Just Watch Me TV is recognized by CAVCO, which is the Canadian Audio Visual Certification Office, as an internet broadcaster, and that sounds really boring, but what it means is just when producers are making Canadian content.
Michael Dobbin:If we license a film or a series. From them they can get the tax credits because we're considered sort of a trigger for that. And then our parent company, capital Motion, is recognized by some of the funders as well. So we can actually help producers and creators in early stages access financing from some of those programs. It's not necessarily our investment but we can help them access it, which is a huge advantage, especially right now. The international content market is changing very, very rapidly and broadcasters are increasingly. Their market share is shrinking and yet a lot of the funds in Canada in particular are geared towards broadcaster-triggered projects. So it means that we can sort of come in and help producers with alternative triggers. Again, that sounds very boring, but it's exciting when you see a series or a film that came about because of some boring bit of red tape we were able to cut through.
Elizabeth Bowman:Can I ask you about performing arts? Do you stream any live performances or anything to do with performing arts?
Michael Dobbin:One of the features of the platform is we do have a live channel, which is called the Fast Channel, and we will be adding more as our content offerings grow. We don't specifically stream sort of live performances in a traditional sense. We do have a lot of documentary that feature performing arts. I think the category is called song and dance, for example. There's also a category called popcorn docs which talks about the arts. It's more sort of you know, musicians and performers and things within the platform. We're not streaming specifically live performances, but we do have content that caters to that need.
Michael Dobbin:One of the things that we are going to be using the live streaming option for is to be able to promote new movies. So, for example, we could live stream the red carpet of a premiere that if you're not in the city where it's happening, you can still watch it. You could then rent the movie or watch the movie on the platform and then you could watch the live Q&A after the event. So there's some really interesting opportunities to kind of bring together live venues with the streaming experience. So we're excited to pilot some of those in the coming months.
Elizabeth Bowman:I've been to film festivals. You know one or two times that I'm not in that industry, but I do appreciate those Q&As when given the opportunity to listen, so I think that's great that you would offer that as something that people could engage with on your platform.
Michael Dobbin:It's a huge draw for to get people into cinemas is when they're the director or an actor someone is from the production, is going to be at a Q&A. Festivals obviously do that. But even with movie premieres of new, new films, when that can happen, it does bring people out and it gets media coverage and people are discovering that. That's you know. Cinema is not dead. It's definitely like everything else is changing and our habits are changing, but it still is a draw. Having a human experience, sharing an experience on film in a dark room with strangers, still has an appeal and still you really can experience the difference between watching something streaming. And I think one of the examples I have when, when I was earlier in my career, I remember seeing one of my favorite films to this day still uh, force majeure, which is reuben oslund who did uh, triangle of sadness and the square and those sorts of films. And I remember seeing force majeure in a cinema and people around me.
Michael Dobbin:I was in europe with a lot of europeans and of course they were laughing. It was a comedy, right, but to the North American, if they were just watching that kind of dark Scandinavian humor without the sort of cues of an audience laughing. I think a lot of people in North America wouldn't know it's comedy or would feel unsure and that affects their experience. But we were in a room full of people and there's a spontaneous burst of laughter and you realize, yes, that is supposed to be funny. It's not just me, you know.
Michael Dobbin:It can really help. So anytime we can, especially with the kind of offerings we have that are coming from every corner of the world. There's different social cues and different styles of humor or storytelling that you're not always going to know. It's like going to a new restaurant with a certain kind of cuisine. You don't know. Am I supposed to eat this with my hands or is there a special fork, like I don't know? Same thing with cinema. Sometimes you just need the first few cues to help you understand that it's okay to laugh at this, you know that's very much how it is at the symphony or the opera.
Elizabeth Bowman:The community likely listening to this podcast is very aware of that. So that's great You're paying attention to that within the film industry and to know that you're doing that, because to people outside the industry we think, oh well, everyone gets that because we all watch film.
Michael Dobbin:Yeah, it's an inside joke, you know. But yeah, you're exactly right. Certainly, with opera or you know, people see it as fine art and high art and they don't connect the dots. Yes, it can also be comedy, but I mean, opera in its day was also pure entertainment, the same way that movies are today. If some of the movies we were making now, in a hundred years, people will sit there and not laugh because they think it's high art, because it's been relegated to the closet and covered in dust and no one watches movies anymore, I don't know, you can cut that out. That was a very dark place to go.
Elizabeth Bowman:Are other streaming platforms doing these live offerings? The red carpet, the Q and A's that type of offering?
Michael Dobbin:To my knowledge, there's no red carpet Q&As and that kind of thing. It's not to say it's not happening. There's so much going on it's really hard to keep track. There certainly are live events. I know, for example, prime Video is starting to stream live sporting events and things like that. We don't have any intentions to do that. We want to keep it to mostly scripted storytelling and documentary.
Michael Dobbin:I think what is interesting about the streaming world now is that, you know, 10, 15 years ago it was about the technology. It was about the fact you could open up your computer or your phone and watch something and the proprietary technology, the platform to be able to give that to you. And now it's not about that anymore. The technology is everywhere. There's 30 ways to do the same thing or try different things, and people are constantly experimenting. So it's back to that old sort of expression that content is king. People are there to see something they haven't seen before or a film they've heard about through word of mouth. And the technology again, they can go to 20 different places with different streaming experiences from the point of pointing and clicking, but that novelty is gone. It's about the storytelling again, I think. I hope that's notwithstanding what AI is going to start doing for things. How?
Elizabeth Bowman:how does one submit a film to a streaming service like yours?
Michael Dobbin:Okay, to submit a film to our streaming service is probably a lot easier than to others. I don't want to get inundated, so I'm not going to give away all the secrets, but basically you can find us, you know you can find my team. You can connect with us on LinkedIn or find a find an email address. Like you know, we do respond to things definitely. You know, pitching is a whole art form that you could do an entire season of pointers of like how to pitch in different industries. But in any case, for us, you know, sometimes we just start with a trailer. Some people can send us a trailer and say this is something we'd like you to consider. That's sort of the simplest way. Definitely, bigger streaming services they have a much more kind of closed. You sort of have to know who the right contact is and you have to do a bit of sleuthing to find out who that is.
Michael Dobbin:My team and I have a very active presence at international markets, so we'll go to conferences and markets and we'll meet these people. So that's how we get their details is. We have conversations and we all know who each other and that kind of thing. So that's how that happens. But it's yeah, it's really tricky. I mean the other. The other thing is through a distributor. If you have a distributor distributing your film, they have those contacts and they know how to place those those things. So in fact a lot of our content deals in the last six months have been with distributors. So we've signed deals with a number of Canadian distributors, including the national Film Board of Canada. So if you want to see stone cold classics like Project Grizzly do you remember that the guy who builds the bear suit, you must know that. Anyway, you know we have old films like Mon Enclantoin, which was a defining film in Quebec cinema, through the National Film Board. So those titles came through a distribution deal.
Elizabeth Bowman:I don't know if I'm allowed to ask this, but you were telling me in a conversation prior to this podcast about selling one time encrypted rights to watch a film, like with your group of friends or hosting.
Michael Dobbin:Oh yes.
Elizabeth Bowman:Like you know, with a new film that has just come out.
Michael Dobbin:You can ask about that. Yeah, so we have a feature within the platform is live now and we're going to be developing it further and it's called pop. Just watch me pop up cinema. And the way it works is lizzie. You could find a film on the service maybe it's a new release, maybe it's an old movie and you think you know what. I'd love to host a screening of this and you're an exhibitor. You could either be a bricks and mortar cinema or you could run a film appreciation society, or you could just do like Tuesday nights at a local barn, like it doesn't matter, you're an exhibitor. If you have a projector, you can be an exhibitor. So basically, what it means is you can get a license to show a film and charge tickets for it, like a cinema would, so you can actually make money showing movies legally. Imagine that people don't. You don't need to pirate stuff anymore. You can actually do it legally and make money.
Michael Dobbin:And we work with a third-party company who has this technology that's phenomenal and has really made things easy, and I encourage anyone to look at it. It's called Artini and we link through to their platform. So the way it works, lizzie, you want to book the film. You either get in touch with us directly or you can go through the platform. You download a third party app, the Artini player. It's free. You register it on the system. We can then see you on the system. We can then program the license, like if you want unlimited plays for a week or three plays over a month.
Michael Dobbin:Whatever we send you that license, what it does is it encrypts the file and pushes it directly to your player and it's a real player so you can can. You could drop in, like your sponsorship messages or trailers for next week or whatever. It's just a media player but it plays these particular files. You need an internet connection to receive the file but not to play it, so you could do your screening in a cave if you wanted to, and then when, when your license is used up, it just deletes off your system. So there's the print traffic. You know the way. A lot of cinemas still use something called the DCP or a digital cinema print. This is sort of an alternative to that in some ways, for definitely for smaller venues, where it's all done digitally online. It's incredibly easy and it also means that for independent producers, distributors, creators, you can run a screening somewhere and it's super easy, like. All you need is a projector and an HDMI cable.
Elizabeth Bowman:It's phenomenal. Like all you need is a projector and an HDMI cable. It's phenomenal and we do send films to cinemas this way, but also to again pop up entrepreneurs. A local mixologist have complimentary cocktails. You could even pair up in terms of the audience, possibly listening to this podcast If you're you have a string quartet and you know what types of music is played in that film score you could play.
Elizabeth Bowman:You know you could have complimentary music that is within the theme of that production. They're just ways to sort of cross over and have a real, like all encompassing event, so I really love that idea of hosting in different spaces and reimagining the film experience.
Michael Dobbin:Absolutely, and especially for organizations or groups that are very active with other things. I mean, film is a very easy one to deliver. You get a file, you play it right, whereas a live performance, you know there's a lot of work involved and a lot of rehearsal and all that kind of thing. But if you wanted to have an extra event, that's just a movie based on the kind of stuff you've been doing, it's sort of an easy little extra thing you can do. And again, we're trying to integrate it and use it as a way to promote films and certainly for releasing new movies. When there's a, you know, a national campaign for a title and it's only playing in six cinemas, it's much harder to kind of justify the expenditure of advertising and promotion. But if it's in six cinemas and it could be anywhere in the country, could be in a town where there's no cinema, it becomes a wider offering with more potential to earn revenue, because artists need to be paid, let's face it.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yes, Ideally the struggle is real. Can I ask how much it costs to have the exhibition rights for a film in your own space?
Michael Dobbin:So the rights to book a film, if you want to do a screening, are going to vary a little bit. It depends on the title, how new it is, that kind of thing. I think some titles might be as low as $75, you know, and if you're charging 10 bucks a ticket, you know you can do the math. You don't need a lot of people to kind of have that pay for itself. Some newer titles might be, you know, in the $250 range If you book directly with us.
Michael Dobbin:Sometimes, if you're in, you know we have a relationship we could do box office splits as well, where you, you know you pay a minimum screening fee and then if you do super well, the box office will take a higher, a higher share that we can then share with the distributor and the filmmaker. So yeah, the short answer it varies, it depends, but you can have a look and you can poke around and we certainly encourage nonprofits or people that are just starting out. If they have a pitch for us that well, we're doing a fundraiser for something, let us know, because we can sometimes negotiate on the price for good causes and things. But less than you think is the short answer.
Elizabeth Bowman:Love that. Can I ask you about advertising on your platform? Obviously that's got to be an important source of revenue for you. How does that work? Do you have like a tiered system where memberships that include advertising and then others that don't?
Michael Dobbin:That's a great question. So there are several different ways users can access content. The simplest is the live channel. You can just log in either through the browser or through the app. We're on various apps, including Android, mobile, apple, roku, apple TV, samsung, a bunch of them so you can just have the app or browse and just watch whatever's streaming live. You don't have to do anything other than that. If you register for free with an email, you can watch movies on demand and that'll be with ads, but most of our titles are free. You can watch them with ads, which that is how you know.
Michael Dobbin:Obviously we're paying for that, generating revenue from that view. If you subscribe, you get more content and no ads, and we're keeping it at essentially $5 Canadian a month for now Because, again, we want it to be an add-on price, we want it to be attractive, too cheap to cancel. So there's different ways. Obviously, we love it when people get a subscription, because every subscription we get is is sort of showing that people are willing to support us in that way and gives us a more of a longer term ability to plan with revenue what's next. But yes, you can if you just want to check out the platform, just so to see the kind of content we have. You don't have to pay. You know we're inviting you to come and poke around, have a look.
Michael Dobbin:In Canada, most 100% of our content is live in Canada. In the US it's probably about 60% of our catalog, because at the moment most of our rights are for Canada only. In other countries you'll see less. So I'd never condone using a VPN, but those who can access the Canadian market will see we have most of our titles live in Canada. Are this much wider offering?
Elizabeth Bowman:And what's the five 10 year vision for this platform?
Michael Dobbin:So the long-term vision. I think my team and I have done a good job. It's sort of embedding ourselves in the funding ecosystem of Canadian production, financing and development, which means that I think within the next year or two you're going to start to see essentially for lack of a better term, just watch me originals shows that are airing with us first, that we've been able to help get off the ground. I'd like to do more of that. I'd like to see us go into other markets and I I think the model that we have, which we're starting in canada, is the idea of stream local, like have access to your local cinema, your local content. There's no reason we couldn't apply that to other territories as well. So you could be in the czech republic and watch a lot of Czech films and people in Canada could also watch those Czech films. But as a means to sort of bring in local content and have people that are essentially scouting that local content, I think would be great and I think we definitely want to move to a model that's going to find ways to again pay the rights holders a little more or help them monetize more, because the more successful content providers are content creators, the better content we're going to get and we'll have those relationships over the longer term. We want to keep working with the same people as much as we can.
Michael Dobbin:So 10 years. I don't even know what the world's going to be like in 10 years. I don't think any of us do at this point. It's happening so quickly. How about this In 10 years? I'd like to still be here and that may be ambitious.
Elizabeth Bowman:Who knows still be here, and that that may be ambitious. Who knows? There'll be a robot sitting here.
Michael Dobbin:No, I hope we're still here too.
Elizabeth Bowman:Watch my latest film, created in four nanoseconds, for your pleasure with that, I get a thank you for having this conversation with me well.
Michael Dobbin:Thanks for the opportunity.
Michael Dobbin:I really appreciate it yeah, and hopefully I'll check back in and see how it's going do and, uh, you know I love talking about movies, so if there's something on there you want a recommendation, you let me know and I'm gonna send you some. I think there's one title, I think it's called oh, what is it called? Which you might appreciate. It's about this music festival in eastern europe. The guy who runs it is a little bit unconventional. Okay, I'll send you the link. I'm trying to remember NoseLand and you can watch the trailer and you'll see what I mean. And I think maybe in your experience in the performing arts over the years, you might find something in it that's a little bit amusing. I certainly found that one amusing.
Elizabeth Bowman:Awesome.
