Film productions: Next-generation, lean, high-quality filmmaking.
I deliver high-end films with small, senior teams — locally or across multiple countries. The approach is built on 10+ years of hands-on experience producing, directing and shooting new innovative formats with small local teams.
What this changes for your production:
More empathy, less friction: small teams create stronger human connection and faster decision-making. Better quality images for budget sensitive productions.
Local expertise with respect: I work with local visual creators as equal partners — protecting authenticity, cultural accuracy.
A positive experience for your people: your local staff and participants experience a professional, respectful process that reflects well on your organisation.
Formats:
Short films and short series
Long-form films
Social media cutdowns
Structured footage library
(easy to reuse for later edits)
From concept to delivery:
Project documentation
Protagonist-driven storytelling
Interview-led formats
Vodcast and podcast productions
Added production value.
Beyond campaign-ready visuals, you receive well-organised footage packages for future use across channels—so your internal teams can reuse materials easily and safely.
Expect deliverables that go beyond “a single film”: a usable asset library for comms, fundraising, reporting and internal sharing.
Production team options
Depending on the need for local expertise, audience insight and production complexity, these are thegoodmessage.studio highly efficient production setups:
01
Local creator(s) on location, remote co-producing.
Remote project lead by Tobias. The most cost-efficient setup — highly efficient in logistics and footprint, while leveraging trusted local access and expertise through a shared co-production process.
02
Local creator(s) and Tobias on location, co-producing together.
A strong hybrid setup — highly efficient on the ground, combining local knowledge and relationships with on-site creative direction and a clear focus on your target audience.
03
Tobias on location.
Photography/film/audio production led by Tobias — highly efficient for fast decisions and consistent quality, with optional local support (assistant producer / fixer / second camera) depending on scope.
All setups are designed to be highly efficient, rooted in local expertise, and centred on respectful, dialogue-driven human connection.
Selected film productions:
Team: Andres Bo (Colombia), Nyokabi Kahura (Uganda), Cheyenne Abel (Papua New Guinea), Fairpicture & Tobias Thiele
Coffee trader Volcafe needed to showcase their commitment to sustainable global coffee production. How can you visualise different aspects of sustainability and their effect on the local communities? Volcafe chose Fairpicture for their excellent international network of creators. Fairpicture assigned me to lead the global production and find a creative and compelling concept.
The result is a series of touching and informative short films, with a people-first approach to the storytelling about environmental sustainability in Uganda, community and people in Colombia, and future-oriented farming practices in Papua New Guinea.
Client
Volcafe, Fairpicture
Year
2025
Team: Saumya Khandelwal, Tobias Thiele
Country: Nepal, Bangladesh
This production showcases how NGOs and institutions can benefit from working with a small, highly specialised agency for ethical film making in sensitive contexts.
The Institute of Development Studies requested a film to promote their innovative participatory research CLARISSA where working children themselves lead the study and their pathway to overcome the worst forms of labour.
Rather than focusing deeply on the issue of child labour itself, the film shows the innovative methodology to encourage an audience of researchers and decision makers to consider this participatory action research rather than the traditional pre-structured approach.
The interested audience should be pointed at the research outcomes on the programme’s website to get more familiar with the concept and understand its benefits.
This demanding goal led to a very open and constructive concepting stage, a team setup with fantastic photojournalist Saumya Khandelwal as the film’s host and narrator and an agile production in scenes of night clubs, toxic leather production and inspiring interviews.
Client
Institute of Development Studies
Year
2024
Awards and Selections:
2025:
5th Bogura International Film Festival (Bangladesh)
Respect Belfast Human Rights Film Festival (Northern Ireland)
Love, Peace and Freedom Film Festival (Mexico)
2024:
Courage Film Festival (Germany)
CinemaKing International Film Festival (CIFF) - South Asia (Bangladesh)
for “Chain Reaction - Child Labour Revisited” documentary film for the Institute of Development Studies, UK.
2023:
German Critics’ Award 2023
German Critics’ Award 2023 (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik) for Richard Bargel - Dead Slow Stampede.
2022:
4th Dimension Independent Film Festival (Indonesia)
Swedish International Film Festival SIFF
London Eco Film Festival (UK)
Courage Film Festival (Germany)
Boden International Film Festival (Sweden)
Luleå International Film Festival (Sweden)
for the docuseries FARMERS for Fairtrade as staff member of Fairtrade Deutschland. Co-Producer Thorsten Kleinschmidt, Fairpicture. This documentary and the activities are partly funded by German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Contact:
Email me directly at info@thegoodmessage.studio
or use the form: