An extremely important component of my master’s degree this year is the final project (TFM). Working in groups, we produce a project with our fellow students which demonstrates our ability and highlights our understanding of the skills that we have learnt and enhanced during the course.
We have chosen to present our final project in the form of a talkshow, focussed on discussing hypothetical scenarios in the footballing world through a combination of imagination and analysis. Each episode produced focusses on a different moment or event that has happened and asks, ‘what if it had happened differently?’ As an example, what would have changed if a specific player chose to represent a different team at international level?
Although we will each contribute to every stage and component of the project, we have each assigned ourselves specific roles as follows:
- Neda – the host
- Mette – the co-host who takes our ‘what-if’ scenarios and poses them to football fans on the streets
- Franziska – the producer and screenwriter
- John – panelist primarily responsible for expert tactical analysis and statistics
- Dani – the ‘fan voice’, who brings humour and audience opinion to the panel
- Me – the historian who contributes contextual and factual research to panel discussions
It is a project that I am hugely excited and enthusiastic to be a part of, working with a fantastic and dedicated team to provide an audience with an alternative, refreshing perspective on the world of football. It also provides all of us with a fantastic opportunity to gain hands-on experience in several crucial areas of the sports journalism industry, including filming, editing and communicating in front of the camera.
Last week, we officially kicked off the project, renting out our university’s television studio to film a brief behind-the-scenes introductory episode where you can get to know the team better. For me, it was an entirely new experience, having never used a television camera outside of a scheduled lecture. Our time in the studio meant that I got to become more accustomed and confident with the equipment, being able to apply what I had learnt in class into a practical scenario. Like most things in life, the best way to learn something is to practice it over and over again – and I think that phrase certainly applies here.
However, my main takeaway from the day and what I will remember most is just how enjoyable the day was. Being on set and working with a fun, supportive team made me personally even more passionate and motivated about the project, and I cannot wait to sit in front of the camera again to discuss our first ‘what-if’. I will be documenting the entire process of the project on this blog but, in the meantime, there are links down below to our pages on several social media platforms as we continue to grow our audience:
YouTube: The What If Football Talkshow – YouTube
TikTok: The What-If Football Talkshow (@the.whatif.footba) | TikTok
Instagram: The What If Football Talkshow – Instagram
