Shooting the arguments that matter
Join the team behind the cameras! After 20 years of filming the Battle of Ideas, WORLDwrite's Ceri Dingle explains why the festival matters – and invites you to help capture this year's debates.
This year marks 20 years of the Battle of Ideas Festival – and 20 years of the education charity WORLDwrite’s crew filming, editing and sharing some of the best public debates in the UK. Since day one, we've been committed to a simple mission: make more of great ideas.
Some people ask, why do you do it? We're certainly not in it for the money; it would cost a fortune if we were. Our crew is entirely volunteer-run, and each 90-minute debate takes, on average, two full days to edit. We do it because we believe these ideas deserve to be heard.
We film to create a lasting record of vital high-level public discourse, something that goes beyond the room, to reach the world. We edit to honour the clarity, nuance and flow of every panel and every audience question. And we do it because too many young people today are rarely exposed to challenging ideas – in schools, colleges or universities. Often today, too, volunteering is about feel-good virtue signalling rather than improving yourself, let alone the world.
For our crew – many of them students or early-career volunteers – this isn’t just about learning filmmaking. It’s about learning to think critically, to listen actively, and to understand that debate isn’t something to fear, but to embrace. And without free speech, you can’t even know what you disagree with.
Filming a debate well is no small feat. It’s not point-and-shoot. It’s a carefully choreographed two-camera ballet – disciplined, focused, and responsive. While one camera captures the action, the other repositions to anticipate the next critical point. Every shot is framed, focused and exposed with care. It’s live storytelling. And no, sadly, AI can’t do it (yet).
In 20 years, we’ve seen a video revolution. Gone are the days of clunky tape changes (though we had it down to a Formula 1-style 14 seconds!) and YouTube’s 10-minute upload limit that compressed everything into unwatchable WMV files. Today, we shoot in ultra-high-definition 4K format, clean up sound with powerful tools, and reach a global audience. The Battle of Ideas YouTube channel has taken off now, too, and is packed with hundreds of compelling sessions – from vintage classics to last year’s most cutting-edge debates.
A favourite? I have plenty, but here’s one from 15 years ago, when spiked’s Brendan O’Neill took on the Optimum Population Trust.
The Battle of Ideas back then squeezed hundreds of people into the Royal College of Art whereas today thousands attend the festival in its new home at Church House, Westminster. The video quality may be low-res vintage YouTube – we didn’t have the high-end kit, editing software or AI sound cleaners – but the argument is pure gold. Our young crew were stunned – they’d never heard that perspective before. And today, when climate ideology is gospel, it’s still a breath of fresh air.
Another standout for me? Last year’s Meet the Author with Dr Az Hakeem on Detrans: When Transition is Not the Solution. Not because I falteringly chaired it (everyone hates seeing themselves on camera), but because it featured Richy Heron’s brave and moving testimony, a moment our crew will never forget. It’s the kind of speech you just won’t hear anywhere else.
This is what the Battle of Ideas offers: debate with consequences. No echo chambers. No grandstanding. Just open discussion, where audience members speak up, challenge speakers, and sometimes turn the whole session on its head. Not with noise, but with better arguments.
Some of our volunteers come away saying, ‘Everyone on that panel agreed.’ But if you listen carefully, you’ll find the nuance. You’ll see the fault lines. They won’t say so directly, but you’ll realise that one speaker wants to change the world, another to preserve it. One puts humanity at the centre; another, perhaps not. Some just make you think, as there really isn’t an obvious answer, but debating ideas might get us closer to one.
So, here’s the invitation: why not join our crew this autumn and see for yourself?
Guaranteed: you won’t like everything you hear. But that’s the point. Are you brave enough to film people whose ideas you disagree with? Bold enough to challenge arguments, not suppress them? At the Battle of Ideas Festival, uniquely, the motto is Free Speech Allowed, the audience does speak up, and they are listened to. There is literally no other forum like it. The audience is taken as seriously as the speakers – and rightly so. And as part of the crew, you’re not just filming it, you’re part of it.
Whether you’re an experienced filmmaker or a total beginner, this is your chance to learn, train, contribute to and capture the key debates of our time. We’ll train you to shoot live debates like a pro at our East London centre – and then you’ll help us film the 20th anniversary Battle of Ideas festival in Westminster.
It will be an intense, fast-paced, intellectually inspiring weekend. From it, we’ll produce up to 650 videos: that’s 50 full-length debates, may be 400 individual speaker videos, 50 panels of speaker introductions, and – new this year – possibly 50 Q&A-only videos.
All of it will be shared freely online. All of it will be arguments that matter and you could help make that happen.
What you get:
· Professional camera training and hands-on practice sessions
· An extraordinary filming experience using broadcast-quality kit
· A full weekend festival pass
· Free time to attend debates you're dying to hear
· Named in the credits for every video – great for your CV or portfolio
· Lunches, refreshments and local travel expenses covered
· A learning experience you will never forget
As one volunteer said last year:
I learned more in one weekend with WORLDwrite than I did on my whole BA film course.
So, what are you waiting for? All the details, session dates and a simple application form are at our volunteering page.
Whether or not you have the time available to join and train with our crew we look forward to seeing you at the festival and do visit our stall. You could always make a fat donation to help us keep the lights at our centre on for three months of editing too. It’s easy to chip in on our JustGiving page.
Thank you.
Ceri Dingle is the director of the education charity WORLDwrite and school of Citizen TV, WORLDbytes. She founded the charity 30 years ago, touring young people across the world from Hiroshima to Buchenwald. She has directed 14 award-winning feature documentaries and edited thousands of videos. She is always looking for paid gigs to keep going and you can email her at ceridingle@btconnect.com.
Tickets for the Battle of Ideas festival 2025 are available here.
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