Just Be Nice StudiosLet's talk
A dancer reaches into the light beneath the industrial roof at Depot Mayfield.
Just Be Nice Studios / Independent film & creative production

A human face
for a complex
world.

We make films, series and digital stories rooted in emotional truth and deep research - revealing what’s still possible and inspiring the courage to act.

Discover the work
Scroll to explore
Movement / Silent SpacesScroll to change perspective ↓

We turn radical imagination into reality.

Just Be Nice is an independent film production and creative studio. We make documentary and scripted films, series and digital campaigns that help people see a subject differently - and feel braver about what comes next.

We work with brands and cultural organisations, government, charities and educators - and people advancing science and frontier tech with care for who benefits. Bring us the first question, or a project already taking shape. We’ll help you find its human core and carry it through to the screen.

What we can make together

Clients & collaborators

  • Fifty Years
  • ARIA
  • Microsoft
  • Google
  • Universal Music Group
  • Pinterest
  • National Geographic
  • Channel 4
  • Discovery Channel
  • Paramount+
  • History Channel
  • Cirque du Soleil
  • BBC
  • British Museum
  • Arts Council England
  • Brut
  • Mott MacDonald
  • Clé de Peau Beauté
  • Esquire
  • Bucks Music
  • Viddyoze
  • RDContent

01 / Selected work

Enter the work library
How we approach a story / I

Spot the patterns in chaos.

Most briefs arrive with a tangle of facts, ambitions and competing perspectives. We look closely, follow the research and listen to the people who know the subject from within. We map the connections that help it make sense. Contradictions matter too. The aim is to make complexity legible while preserving its depth.

Explore the thinking behind the work
How we approach a story / II

Find the question that drives it.

What do we really want - and what stands in the way? We distil the subject into a central question with something at stake. That gives the story its conflict, and the audience a reason to care how it unfolds.

Inside the Fifty Years work
How we approach a story / III

Let the person propel the story.

A changing workplace becomes a single person’s story. A scientific breakthrough becomes someone deciding whether to keep going. Their experiences give the subject emotional weight, and the audience someone to travel with.

How we approached Shimmy
How we approach a story / IV

Leave room for possibility.

Through performance, image, sound and rhythm, we breathe cinematic life into the story. We hold onto the difficult parts, and look for the hope people make within them. Regardless of format or length, our work invites you to leave feeling braver about what might happen next - and the part you could play.

Watch the workA young man breaks into a smile beneath the trees, from Not Yet.
A young man breaks into a smile beneath the trees, from Not Yet.

02 / Case studies

Explore all four cases

Explore the research, creative decisions and collaboration behind four projects.

03 / What we do

What does your
story need?

A question that needs exploring. A film ready to make. A story with further to go.
We can shape the whole project, or join you where we’re needed.

I / Shape

Find the story.

Deep research, story positioning, series ideas and a visual language. We find the human question that gives the work its purpose.

Story & creative direction II / Make

Make it felt.

Documentary and scripted films, series and branded work. Writing, directing and production, with care for every detail that reaches the screen.

Films & series III / Extend

Take it further.

Short films, social series and digital campaigns. We rethink the story for each format, giving people different ways to discover it and spend time with it.

Digital storytelling

From the first research question to the final frame.

How we work
04 / An open practice

Tools for the next thing you make.

AI should give creatives more room to think and make. We build tools around real projects, then share the parts that could help with yours.

Use a free resource, or work with us through bespoke workshops, workflow clinics and partner-funded pilots. We’re particularly interested in widening access for creatives already facing barriers.

Explore free resources Workshops & partnerships
I / Guide + templateResearch briefKeep the sources.
Find the human question.Use the guide ↗ II / Reusable skillA second pair
of eyesPressure test your brief.Try the skill ↗ III / Workflow guideA creative
archiveBuild your own ↗
Three free resources. No sign-up.
Cast and crew on the Indispensable virtual studio set, with overhead lights and a desert scene on the LED wall.
On set / Indispensable / Virtual studio production
The people around the story

The people we make with.

Founded by filmmaker and creative director Souvid “JIJO” Datta, JBN brings together world-class artists, creators and technicians from different disciplines and backgrounds. We build each team around the work - from a crew of three to a production of fifty.

Meet the studio
Open film at source ↗