Emily Neusch Portfolio
2015 EMA’s
Article One:
Held in Milan, Italy and having two amazing hosts, Ed Sheeran and Ruby Rose, it wasn’t a surprise when the 2015 MTV EMAs was a huge success. Co-host Ruby Rose had her most recent and glorifying role in this year’s Netflix original Orange is the New Black. Her role on this show caused her fan base to multiply rapidly even just for a few episodes. Other co-host Ed Sheeran was originally made famous in 2010 when his single “A Team” was released instantly resulting in his fan base being amplified, as well as when he collaborated with One Direction. Together the two took the lead in hosting the 2015 European Music Awards. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis kicked off the show with an amazing performance of their newly released single “Downtown.” The performance was full of surprises, including an intense dance routine and some people being suspended up into the air above the stage. It was a perfect, stunning beginning to the show, full of surprises and amazingly talented artists. There were some well-known artists that made appearances throughout the show including Jason Derulo, Justin Bieber, Ellie Goulding, Ed Sheeran, James Bay, Tori Kelly, and Pharrell Williams. For most of these artists, it was a successful and fun night. Justin Bieber was the recipient of several different awards during the show. His extreme winning streak shows just how big and dedicated his fan base is about supporting him and his career. He won awards such as the Best Male, Best Worldwide Act North America, Best Collaboration and Best Look. These wins weren’t and shouldn’t be taken lightly due to the people that he was in the running with. He was up against artists that are widely known for their own successes like Sheeran, Williams, Swift, and many others. The MTV EMAs are all about the artists and their performances and most importantly, the awards. Nicki Minaj was awarded Best Hip-Hop, also Macklemore and Ryan Lewis won the title of Best Video for their single “Downtown” which they performed at the beginning of the show. Some additional awards that were given out were Best Live to Ed Sheeran, Best Song to Taylor Swift for “Bad Blood,” One Direction for Best Pop, Best New Male Artist to Shawn Mendes, and Rhianna was awarded Best Female. There is no doubt that the performances that took place at this year’s EMAs were amazing, and it was exciting to see some of the new twists everyone’s favorite artists added to their acts. For example, Jason Derulo had an entire portion of his routine during “Want to Want Me” on a hover board. Another unexpected surprise was Ellie Goulding appearing on the stage in a stunning black dress. However, instead of her going all out with a routine and back up dancers, she simply stood in one place in the middle of a diamond stage and let the music speak for itself. Some of the crowd’s favorite performances were Tori Kelly’s performance of an acoustic version of “Should’ve Been Us” and Pharrell Williams’ performance of “Freedom.” With such an inspiring song, Pharrell Williams was an amazing closing performer for the evening. With his amazing vocals and colorful background dancers, he truly put on a great show. Overall, the EMAs did not have a huge, dramatic scandal like Kanye stealing the stage, but it was a marvelous evening. The EMA’s handed out multiple awards to many well respected artists across the world.
Reflection:
The reason that I chose this article to represent my earlier articles from the year is because I feel like it will make it easier for anyone comparing this article to my latest ones just how far my writing has come. The things that I like about this article is the way that I made sure to give an overview of everything that happened. I wanted to make sure that I covered all of the most important parts of the EMA’s and not just talk about a handful of awards that are always given out. I wanted to make sure that nothing was left out. However, this introduced something that I learned later on in the year. I learned that when writing about award shows it is not always the best idea to just write a story about what happened beacuse it is boring and not many people are going to want to read it. Something that I would have changed about this article is firstly, the title. It is a very boring title and does nothing to try and grab readers’ attention and try to get them to read it. I would have also changed my article from just an overview that is boring into something like “The top 10 moments from the 2015 EMA’s”. Just changing it from something really boring into something easier to read and more interesting.
Article Two: Leo finally takes home an Oscar The bright lights blinding you, the intimidating sound of mass applause and the miniature man made of gold signifies that you are the recipient of an Oscar. After being nominated several times in years past, Leonardo DiCaprio finally holds the name of 2016 Best Actor. The night of February 28, 2016 was a night DiCaprio said was not “taken for granted.” Having already been nominated several times for “Best Actor” with some of his roles in previous films, you could say that there was a lot of pressure on him to win this time around. Leading up to this year’s Oscars, there had been a lot of talk going on within the public, everyone trying to make their predictions about how the night was going to play out. Along with those discussions about who everyone thought was going to win, there were also a lot of internet memes related to the fact that DiCaprio had yet to win an Oscar. Several of these memes mentioned the fact that so many of the people DiCaprio was generally categorized with had already won Oscars of their own. Leaving him to be the only one that had not received the award. One of the most popular of the memes was one that showed a group of famous actors such as Jennifer Lawrence and Anne Hathaway, holding their Oscars and laughing with the caption: “And then I said... Don’t worry Leo, you’ll get one next time.” Of course there were several more of these memes some including small summaries from the different films he starred in that were twisted in a way so that it would end up relating to him and his situation with the Oscars. While others were a group of reaction pictures from previous Oscar Award shows when another nominee was receiving the award instead of him. All of these photos had their own caption of what DiCaprio was supposedly saying in his head. Between the public regarding the nominees for Best Actor, the main debate was who was going to take home the title for “Best Actor.” Would it be Matt Damon with “The Martian” or Leonardo DiCaprio with “The Revenant”? Both were very impressive films and most definitely deserved to be recognized, however just like pretty much everything, there can only be one winner. In the end, DiCaprio was the recipient of the title and was given the chance to make his acceptance speech. You could tell just by the huge smile on his face, that he was beyond proud to be holding the award knowing it was his, however his speech also gave away the pure joy that he was feeling in that moment. The speech started out just like typical acceptance speeches do, thanking the academy and those who are close to the recipient of the award. However, DiCaprio also took the time to make sure that everyone involved with the film was also recognized during his speech. “The Revenant was the product of the tireless efforts for an unbelievable cast and crew I got to work alongside with,” DiCaprio said. You could tell that some audience members approved of his message due to their facial expressions and body language while the speech was being given. Kate Windslet became teary-eyed and emotional, while others in the audience were nodding their heads in agreement. The ending of DiCaprio’s speech was just like the beginning and was focused on thanking everyone involved with the road to his success. “I thank you all for this amazing award tonight,” DiCaprio said. “Let us not take this world for granted. I do not take tonight for granted. Thank you all so much.”
Reflection: I chose this article for a reason I can not really describe, which I am aware may sound strange. There is just something about this article that I absolutely love and it makes me smile when I read it and know that it is somehting that I wrote on my own, and is entirely mine. With that being said, I am very proud of this article. My favorite part of it is the descriptive lead. I wanted my readers to feel like they were sitting in the audience at the Oscars. I wanted them to feel the anticipation and the tension that was in the room just before the winner was announced, and that was the overall point of the lead. I feel like I did a good job portraying it in a sentence. I also liked how I brought social media into the article. It was refreshing to go from results at an award show to the jokes made about it. There were tons of jokes being thrown at Leoanardo Dicaprio due to him being nominated so many times before and never winning. The fact that he actually won this year was a huge thing which is why I covered the topic, but I feel like the memes mentioned in the article kept it casual and not too formal for readers. If there was something I would change about this article it would be my transitions. I just think that a handful of them are sloppy and overly used in a lot of my articles. I would like to go back and change all of them into something more creative.
Article Three:
Survivor’s craziest constestants compete Stripped of their belongings and contact to the outside world, 18 strangers were stranded in Kaoh Rong, Asia. Survivor contestants were separated into tribes and forced to work together in order to endure physically and mentally brutal challenges in the hopes of winning one million dollars. Before the season premier ended, the crazy contestants were clear. The two main unique participants of the show were Tai Trang, the 51-year-old gardner and nature lover, and Debbie Wanner, the 49-year-old chemist who has an everlasting resume. “I love all living creatures,” Trang said. During one point of the season premiere, Trang had helped catch the chickens that had gotten loose from their cage, and then proceeded to inform his tribe mates that the chickens would be much happier if they were tied together and allowed to roam free around the camp. “I don’t see the point, the chickens are going to be dead in a few days anyways,” tribe mate Caleb Reynolds said. Trang’s short stature, baldhead and strangely bushy eyebrows make him a strange fit in the Beauty Tribe. However, he has already proven that he is a value member of the tribe by helping around camp and building the shelter. “He is always moving,” tribe mate Michele Fitzgerald said. “He is like a whirlwind.” Debbie Wanner from the Brains Tribe shows viewers how insane she might be with her unusually large resume. “I am a chemist, but I have been a photonics manufacturing supervisor,” Wanner said. “I am an electronics expert, a bar tender, a caretaker for Nuns, and in between jobs I fill in at Red Lobster as a server.” She definitely has had a lot of experience with jobs and it does clearly show. She has so many current proffesions that the producers seemed to have issues picking a single job. She is the only contestant with a seemingly endless list of professions on shuffle. At one point in the show, Wanner could not stop giving advice and tips from her expert survival skills to the other members of her tribe. Not long after assuring everyone of her reliability, she failed to complete the very simple task of starting a fire. Another thing that was apparent about the chemist was her very open and opinionated personality. After just minutes of arriving at camp she was not afraid to inform Peter Baggenstos, another member of the Brains Tribe, of his resemblance to President Barrack Obama. Several of her tribe mates are now skeptical of how trustworthy she will be through out the game, and are unsure if keeping her around is a good idea. If she is already lying to everyone and giving suspicious vibes to everyone at camp, the strategic thing to do is to think about potentially taking her out first. No one wants an untrustworthy alliance member. Clearly both Trang and Wanner have proven their out of the ordinary characteristics. Only time will tell who this year’s craziest survivor award will go to.
Reflection:
I love this article becuase it shows a lot of the skills that I picked up through out the year. From my title all the way to my conclusion, I can honestly say I am really proud of everything in this article. I did have some help in editing it, however I still feel like it is mostly my work. If you would have given me this topic in the beginning of the year, I most likely would have done an overview of what happened in the episode, however I took my own advice and I tried something different. I think that the best part of my article is the lead. It really grabs the reader’s attention and makes them want to read more. Another thing that I like from this article is that I picked out some quotes from the contestants on the show during the episode I was covering and incorporated them into my article. I actually used them as transitions between ideas throughout the article which I turned out to really like a lot. Something that I would change is I would have liked to get some quotes from students at UHS just to be able to get some outside ideas and opinions on the contestants and incorporate them in the article as well. Since this is a high school publication I think it should be important to bring everything back to UHS as much as possible, however I did not want my article to be over run by quotes, so I went against this idea. I still feel however that I should have gotten at least one or two.
Personal Narrative:
Growing up in Debary is the only thing that I have really ever known. I have gone to school with the same exact people for as long as I can remember and have had the same friends for the same amount of time. Thinking about it now, I can see where growing up here in the very small city that is Debary, has affected me personality wise. Since I have never really been exposed to too much change over the years, I have become comfortable and content with the way my life was going. It is only something that has occured to me recently that has changed my view of my perfect little city. Being here has been great, however I feel like I am not able to reach my full potential here. Everyone here knows me from my family. I guess having a really strict math teacher as a mom can spread word about your to everyone else. Between her teaching career, my brother’s popularity as a varsity football player, and an older sister who survived an extreme car accident, it is safe to say that I am well known in this area. However where people may know of me, they do not really know me as a person. I am not just “Mrs. Neusch’s daughter” or “Tyler’s little sister”, I am my own person too, and only a few people have taken the time to realize that. With this being said I feel like moving out of town and away from anyone who is familiar of my past is the best option for me. I will be able to open up as a person and be myself, without the fear of being compared to family members. This is where I feel like I have become the most affected. Since my mom was, and still is, a very widely known teacher in this area, I feel like I have a certain behavior I must obtain. As a result, I have become a very polite and sometimes shy person to be around at first, especially with adults. I was raised to always treat adults with complete respect, and that is how I am now seen by everyone else. Granted that is not always the worst way for people to know you as, however I feel like it is since it is not really my true personality. Seperating myself from all of the invisible confines of Volusia County is going to allow me to really be able to find who I am as a person. I am excited to find who I am and really find what will make me happy in life. I know that I have not discovered what does make me truly happy yet, but I do know that I am really young and have plenty of time to figure it out. Something else that I have been affected by due to where I grew up was all of the critisism from others. I have high standards that I must live up to I feel like. My two older siblings have already showed that they are on their
paths to greatnesss, however I apparently have not shown or proven that I will be as well. This concpet frustrates me to a great extent because I feel like I should be able to do or pursue whatever I want. This might seem childish, but I want to be able to make decisions about my life without feeling as if I need my parents’ permission. I have a very laerge family aside from those that I live with at home, and I want to make them all proud of me. With this however I want to make sure that I am staying true to myself at tthe same time. Moving out of state seems like the best option at the moment, and is one of the only things that I am 100% sure that I want. A lot of people in town have been trying to make me feel like moving out to Los Angeles is not a smart decision ever since I announced that it was where I wanted to go. At first, I was letting them and their opinions get to me, and I was starting to rethink my entire plan, but I have since realized that their opinions really should not matter to me. In the end, they are not the ones that are moving out to California, so why should I care if they do not like the idea? It is my life and I am going to live it the way that I want to. Ever since I have come to this decision I have been able to take steps towards reaching my overall goal of going into the music industry one day and i could not be happier. One of the first things that I am excited to do when I do get out to Los Angeles is pursue music and acting. I have found that I love being on stage, and I feel like I can really be myself when I am. I am hoping to be able to find a temporary career at Disneyland until I figure out what I am going to do later on in life and I am extremely anxious to get started. I find it funny just how much I was being affected by those around me and the environment that I was trapped in. I am in a way disappointed that I did not discover what I have earlier on in life due to the possibility of being able to change a lot of the problems I had earlier on. Even though I wish I could change parts of my past, I do not want to make myself go insane by thinking “what if ’s” and will continue to move on with my life from the way it is now. Even though I will always call Debary home, I feel like I could make a much better life out in California where I am no longer going to be restricted to anyone else’s judgements or opinions on the choices I am making for myself. One thing is for sure, I can not wait to get going.