Straight shooting from 2026's Young Arrows Co-Chairs

Why did you agree to be chairs of the Young Arrows for 2026? 

DW: It’s a pretty simple answer; I love the British Arrows. It’s always been good to me, and I care deeply about the next generation. I feel like we’re in a horrible time right now, for the young ones. I don’t feel like much is being done to seed the way for for them to come up. So, it felt nicely timed because I’ve been stressing about it quite a lot, the path into the industry, but it felt like a nice little start, to try and find ways to look out for who’s next. 

SOC: I think the Arrows is one of the few award ceremonies that we [Love Song] engage with, and the company that we’re running is very focused on trying to find new and diverse voices, and build them up, and I think anything that we can do to help spotlight emerging talent and give them a bit of a leg up is important. I was also just interested to be part of the jury that is going to decide which voices are the ones that are coming through, that are important to highlight, and to ask what a fresh perspective looks like, and what is it that’s new and interesting. 

Anything that we can do to help spotlight emerging talent and give them a bit of a leg up is important.

DW: Also, a little bit shamefully, I didn’t really know too much about Young Arrows because it didn’t exist at the start of my career. I would have absolutely fucking loved to have Young Arrows - that I could enter for free! - when I was coming up. It felt like a nice chance to be able to get a good, hard look at everything that’s going on. It felt like a nice chance to make sure, especially when I heard Shirley was involved as well, that we can find great work, and really celebrate great work. 

SOC: Most awards in this industry are for profit, and one of the main barriers for young people in this industry is financial, right? So, if your company isn’t entering work on your behalf, how are you going to get a spotlight? So, yes, I think, if it wasn’t free, I think I would have thought twice about actually doing it because I just wouldn’t have understood how it would have worked. [Being free] makes it feel like it properly cares about the future of the business.

The free-to-enter Young Arrows is open for entry until Wednesday September 2

Above: Shirley O'Connor and David Wigglesworth, this year's Co-Chairpeople for the Young Arrows.

Is it more difficult than ever for new talent to stand out from the crowd?  

DW: I don’t want to be too negative, but I think, creatively, it’s a hard time. The economy has been a bit shit for a while, and the industry’s not been at its most confident, thriving best. And then, usually what happens is, everything gets scrutinised more deeply. So, I feel like it’s not been the loosest, freest, most fun version of the industry recently. That said, I’m actually optimistic because every year, I meet brilliant young creatives. 

The economy has been a bit shit for a while, and the industry’s not been at its most confident, thriving best.

I do think that with the amount of tech and the amount of ways that you can create stuff, it’s quite easy to find teams that are really good and, usually, it’s the universal, eternal principles that seem to stand out. Like, a team that just works hard, is excitable, cares deeply about what they do… those are the same traits that I’ve seen in great teams throughout my career. That stands out more now than ever. But even though there are so many more opportunities to be seen, it almost feels harder than ever to get in.  

SOC: From the production side, and the crew etc, it is still quite an insular industry. There are a lot of people who are in it because their family was in it, and they live in London. The barrier of the cost of living in London is really tricky and though, to start directing, you can go and do something with an iPhone, to get to that next stage does require a bit of backing and resource, which not many people have. 

There are so many jobs in this industry that you do not need the privilege of a third level education to excel at, certainly on the production side. There are so many crew positions, it does seem like we should be doing better to raise awareness that these are jobs exist, and that they can become very well paid careers to people that are, I guess, not aware of our industry in the first place. 

Above: It can be harder than ever to stand out from the crowd.

What can be done to help people newly entering the industry?

DW: At Channel 4, we have a really good placement programme where there are teams that are in for three months and then they move on before another one comes in. So, you’ve always got young teams in and everyone has to work on everything. So, you kind of get a slam dunk birthing of how to answer a brief and you’re kind of chucked onto everything but not expected to answer it, but you make a lot of work. 

I think, at other places I’ve been [where that doesn’t happen], it’s because money’s getting tighter and timelines have become shorter, and the people that get hurt the most are the young ones that need that time and experience and a bit of a looser, broader chance to be able to make mistakes and learn on the way. So, I do think there’s a bit of a skill gap in finding characters that have an interest in the creative arts but maybe don’t know [advertising] would be an interesting place to be. Maybe they’re a good writer but they’ve never done a course that tells them how to write endlines or to construct a deck, and that’s probably an area the industry could do a lot better in.  

Money’s getting tighter and timelines have become shorter, and the people that get hurt the most are the young ones that need that time and experience and a bit of a looser, broader chance to be able to make mistakes and learn on the way. 

SOC: Everyone’s just got to take the time to think about why certain people are not succeeding and what can be done to bridge those gaps. 

DW: At Channel 4, a lot of the people who help the apprentices, they’re not doing it because it’s in their job description or because they’re being paid to, but because they just care about the younger ones. So, they give up a lot of their own time outside of their work, and that’s the hard thing we really have in the industry at the minute. Everyone’s time crunched, everyone’s results driven because they have to be and then, to help the next generation come through, you’re like, okay, you’re going to have to offer up time and energy and guide them and try and protect them a little bit so they can learn. I guess it’s just being reliant on individual people’s want to do that. 

Above: Caroline Jemirifo [left] who won the Post Production Producer – Audio category, with Lou Allen of Factory Studios, sponsors of that category.

Despite the economy and the different challenges the industry faces, advertising still seems to be an attractive industry; why you think that is?  

SOC: Yes, and I guess, in part, it’s maybe because in advertising there’s lots of different ways of being creative. There are so many different facets to it, be it filmic or print or digital or experiential. There are so many different ways to put your creativity to use.  

There are so many different facets to [advertising], be it filmic or print or digital or experiential. There are so many different ways to put your creativity to use.

DW: As an MTV-watching kid, ads were quite prevalent in my day-to-day. So, there was that subconscious understanding of commercials, and when I learned it was an industry, it wasn’t a big jump to be like, ‘oh, I want to give that a try’. I’m interested to know, now, what [younger people’s] viewpoint is on advertising because, though it’s everywhere, you can sort of escape it if you want to. It isn’t quite so embedded in culture. 

Above: AI can be used to amplify creativity, but it can be dangerous if people come to rely on it. 

Where do you see AI as a part of the industry in the coming months or years? 

DW: Philosophically, I don’t like it, but if AI suddenly got removed from the world I’d be devastated because I now abuse it to do lots of shit that makes my life easier. But I also hate it at the same time. So, I’m a complete walking contradiction. I think the thing that stresses me about it is it’s so easy to use, and I fear that it can very easily replace the ability to use your own brain. I know it’s not a very hot take, but I think the ease at which you can just [ask AI to] chuck you a couple of lines… I really, really would urge the next generation not to ever use it as a crutch to generate things. 

My main beef, generally of AI, is that it’s been dumped on the world as a cost-saving efficiency, first and foremost, and I will never be able to separate that being my first take on it.

For me, the best use of it is to amplify your creativity. Like, If you have funny short film ideas it’s just really cool that you could, as a young team, quickly create silly versions of something that can express an idea. Something that allows you to have more than just the statement that ‘we can be a funny team, we promise’.  That’s really cool, but I think the second it’s used to generate opinion or to generate ideas, or asking it to rewrite something, it becomes a dangerous path. Especially if you start getting used to [doing that]. 

Even tasks that feel quite simple are often quite important in building your opinion or your writing skills or your decision-making between something that’s good or bad. So, I just I’m very much like, use it, test stuff, because you’d be silly not to, but the second you start using it to replace using your own brain… 

SOC: I totally agree. Using it as a tool for accentuating creativity, I’m not against. The thing that stresses me out a little, that I’m seeing quite a lot, is that so much of this industry is about communication and I’m seeing a lot of people outsourcing their communication skills to a [AI]. People are forgetting how to trust themselves and their opinions, and how to get their opinions and their thoughts across. So, it would be a real shame if people don’t keep an eye on that, and learn how to trust your own voice and trust what they want to say. 

DW: I think my main beef, generally of AI, is that it’s been dumped on the world as a cost-saving efficiency, first and foremost, and I will never be able to separate that being my first take on it. Anytime it’s appeared in our industry, it’s never really been put forward as a way to really help [creatively], it’s always been ‘could we do this shoot in half the time?’. ‘Could we spend less money and do it this?’. It should never have been applied to the creative industries to start with, in my head but I just think everything’s better when you can feel sticky, grubby, human fingerprints on things.