About us

This blog was founded a group of film and media teachers and writers based in the North of England and Scotland.

The blog presents new material as well as work that has appeared on other websites and blogs associated either with in the picture magazine or our teaching. in the picture magazine was edited by Roy Stafford from 1990 until it ceased publication in 2008. All of us wrote in the magazine and ‘itpworld’ carries on the itp brand.

Keith Withall (alias Keith 1942) is a freelance teacher and writer on film. He prefers to watch his movies from celluloid prints projected onto a large screen. Twice a year he goes off to Archive Festivals in order to keep up on cinema history. An early disappointment was discovering that he had missed Karl Marx’s birthday by one day: the consolation was finding he shared Maximilien Robespierre’s.

Nick Lacey is a freelance film and media studies teacher based in Bradford, UK. He’s written several textbooks. If he had to choose between film and music he’d probably choose the latter but that’s harder to write about. He believes that the human race are ‘ghosts’; that is, our environment can no longer sustain us and it’s only a matter of time before we’ve had it. He blames the capitalists but also everyone else (and himself) for letting them get away with it.

Rona Murray teaches film and media studies and writes on a variety of film and media topics. She has an PhD in Feminist Films, which provided a further excuse to sit in front of films by women directors.

Roy Stafford (aka ‘venicelion’) is a freelance lecturer and writer working on film education with cinemas in the North of England. He intends to spend his declining years watching movies in cinemas in as many countries as possible. He hasn’t yet made it to Venice.

Des Murphy (aka des1967) is a freelance CPD provider and consultant based in Aberdeen and working mainly in Scotland. He is Secretary of The Association for Media Education in Scotland (AMES) and edits its biannual journal, The Media Education Journal.

Update 2022

Currently only Roy and Keith are posting regularly on the blog. The others for their different personal reasons have ceased writing for the blog at the moment.

We have also accepted postings from other writers at various times since the blog began and we are interested in other contributors who may wish to write for us. Please leave a message on the ‘Contact Us‘ page.