Presentation Evaluation

On Thursday 11th our group did our presentation on Jack the Ripper in films. We concentrated on Verisimiltude, Iconography, and Ideological Assumptions. I felt that as a group we worked well together, but we could have perhaps more effort into it, to try and think of idea's for involving everyone, so it could have been more interesting for them. I feel The presentation went well, and the power point was very handy for using images of Ripper films. It was a shame it would have been so awkward to show clips as this could have backed up our claims. I have enjoyed learning about Jack the Ripper, and the variety of films and television programmes that feature him.

Post Four- post presentation evaluation

On Thursday we performed our presentation on Jack the Ripper in film. I feel that the presentation went quite well as everyone participated and brought their individual research to the presentation along with the research we had done together as a group. I feel that the powerpoint presentation we put together as a visual aid was a useful addition to our presentation as it allowed us to show pictures to back up our ideas. I think an area we could have improved on was including some way to get the audience to interact as it would have been more interesting for them.

I also feel that our presentation would have benefited from some film clips to demonstrate our ideas, however, this wouldn't have been very practical as we would of had to stop the presentation to set up the dvd player and find the required scene in the film.

Overall, I feel that our presentation went well, and as a group we worked well together. I enjoyed putting the presentation together and learned some interesting facts about the Jack the Ripper case in the process.

Jennifer Bailey

Presentation

Today we had our group presentation on Jack the Ripper in film. Our group discussed ideological assumptions, verisimilitude and iconography. We each talked about a particular area and offered film examples and film images to support our statements. I feel that the presentation went well and we provided an informative look into Jack the Ripper in films.Overall I found the subject of the Ripper in film very interesting and enjoyable to learn about.
If anyone is interested in watching films about Jack the Ripper check out these trailers. I found them to be a good source of research and entertaining.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JJIRu2pDE3I
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yw8US3gS37w
(Image found at)
http://i2.iofferphoto.com/img/item/246/721/32/jack-the-ripper.jpg

Post Three

We had a group metting on 9th December ahead of the presentation to finalise our PowerPoint presentation and have a run through of our material and also to time how long our presentation will last for. We booked a group study room for two sessions so we could use the computer to all check that the powerpoint presentation was how we wanted it. In this meeting we also created a bibliography of all the resources we have used during researching for the presentation.

After reading Toni's blog on useful websites, I have to agree that I also found the www.casebook.org website particularly interesting. The website had archives of newspaper articles about Jack the Ripper from the time of the murders that were in newspapers from as far away as New Zealand. This was interesting as it was evidence of how the case was treated in different countries. The website also had copies of the letters that were sent supposedly from Jack the Ripper, these were really interesting as they were original copies so you could see the handwritting and detail. The letters also had a discriptive text with them explaining their significance which was also handy.
Jenny Bailey

Post one

During the Jack the Ripper in films and television lectures I was shocked to learn the wide variety of films and television programmes that featured the killer. For instance, the clip from Star Trek was very interesting, as I didn't realise that so many genres had covered the case, and I would never have guessed that a science fiction programme would contain the story. I was also intrigued at the numerous Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper programmes/films that had been made, and something Mark said has stuck with me; that a lot of people actually believe Jack the Ripper to be the fictional character and Sherlock Holmes to be a person from history.
Overall our group gathered a lot of information to be used for our presentation.

Informative websites

I have found some interesting websites during my research into Jack the Ripper a website that was suggested in our workshop handout was particularly informative. The site provided me with a list of witness descriptions from the time the murders were taking place. I found this important as it provided me with a starting point into the Ripper iconography (below is the link to the website)
.http://www.casebook.org/
Another website suggested was also very useful to me, I was able to learn about various films about Jack the Ripper. The site had a feature called Filmguide navigation which I found very useful as I was able to search Ripper films dating back to the silent era up until the present day. If anyone is interested in learning more about Jack the Ripper in movies I would highly recommend you check out this site.(below is the link to the website)
http://hollywoodripper.com/

Group Meeting

Our group had a meeting on Thursday 4th to discuss our findings and ideas on how we plan to present our information and in what style. My group members and I have decided to present our findings on Jack the Ripper films in the form of PowerPoint. We have decided to present for five minutes each on our areas of research. Our group has a good range of information and a selection of images we plan to use for next Thursdays presentation. So we are now just putting the final touches to our individual sections of discussion. I have been looking at the iconography of Ripper films and have found some very enjoyable films to watch along the way such as Murder by Decree(1979). The range of films about the Ripper is very extensive so I have chosen to focus on four that I feel best shows a use of Ripper iconography.

Post Two

As preperation for tomorrow's group meeting, I have been researching some of the facts about the Jack the Ripper case as part of the area of the presentation to do with verisimilitude. As I am already doing an essay for my Victorian Britain module, it wasn't hard to find out information as I already have alot from research for this essay. I have found out alot of basic facts such as locations, times and consequences of the murders. What struck me most was the way only 5 of the victims are ever mentioned in films about Jack the Ripper. In actual fact, the police at the time considered upto 11 murdered prostitutes to be victims of Jack the Ripper. I think that the main reason for this is the way the press covered the stories at the time as these 5 victims were focused on most and I couldn't find many articles from newspapers that mentioned the other victims. I shall bring this information with me in tomorrow's meeting and discuss with the others where it can be included in the presentation.
Jenny Bailey

Iconography

This week I have been busy looking into the iconography in films about Jack the Ripper. I have been researching films through imdb then going onto Utube to view clips of the films I have found. The iconography in Ripper films is very important to the overall tone and mood of a film. In many of the films I have noticed an obvious pattern has emerged in the costume of the Ripper and the various film settings. I have also gone on to textually analyse a few of these films such as Murder by Decree(1979) and From Hell(2001) to understand the reasons why directors often follow this very similar pattern of dark foggy London streets and the Ripper dressed in black, middle to high class Victorian style clothes. I have also learned that the style of the Ripper has been similar in TV programmes, newspaper articles and books. The world seems to agree on one look for the Ripper and that look has been extremely popular for many years.

Ripper Film Clips

In this particular workshop session we looked at films relating to or directly about Jack the Ripper. I found this session very informative, it was interesting to learn about the amount of films about Jack the Ripper and how different directors have brought there own style and ideas to the screen concerning Jack. It was also interesting to learn that films relating to the Ripper have been popular for many years and have even included the fictional character Sherlock Holmes investigating the murders.Overall the session provided our group with some ideas on how to approach our own presentation of the Ripper in films.

Post One

In today’s lecture we looked at the various ways in which Jack the Ripper is used in television. I was really surprised at the range of genres that include Jack the Ripper, in particular the use of Jack the Ripper in the sci-fi genre and even the suggestion of Jack the Ripper being an alien. What struck me most was the way the subject is exploited more on television than it is in film. For example, television is much more versatile when adapting the murders, and as evidence Jack the Ripper appears in episodes of Star Trek.

In our workshop group we discussed our individual roles within the presentation group and have decided to focus on the following areas in the study of Jack the Ripper in films:
Iconography of the Ripper
Ideological assumptions and constructions
Verisimilitude

My particular area of study is to examine the ideological assumptions such as cheery prostitutes, sadistic doctors, arrogant aristocrats and establishment conspiracies and how these are constructed in films featuring Jack the Ripper. We decided that we would limit the amount of actual films clips we show during the presentation as it would be too time consuming to set up the DVD player and find the particular chapter of the DVD to demonstrate our points. Instead we are going to use stills from films as they will be easier to incorporate into our power point presentation and we will be able to carry on talking whilst we show the stills.

Jennifer Bailey

Introduction

Hello!
We are doing a presentation on Jack the Ripper in films, for the 'It Shouldn't Be Allowed' module at Wolverhampton University.
Our members writing for this blog will be Clare, Jenny, Monica, and Toni.