Jocelyn Wortley

Multi Media Artist

 

Jocelyn was born in 1964 to Lorraine and Rosemary Mullins in Grahamstown, South Africa, second born of an eventual four siblings. Jos, as she is affectionately known, was schooled at the DSG and went onto to study at Rhodes University. With Drama and Dance as majors (and with Prof Gary as mentor / HOD) Jos graduated with a BA Hons.

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Jocelyn left for Johannesburg to find work and worked as film assistant then set designer for a while in the local film industry before self-teaching herself linear online editing and finding a job in the SABC News editing for broadcast - the often traumatic scenes of the late 80s still leave an emotional scar. Jocelyn’s passion for video and film storytelling had been uncovered and Jos soon worked at a leading post production facility as an editor for the local film, documentary and TV industry.

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With the technology advances of the 90s came the advent of non-linear editing studios and Jocelyn was soon operating one of the first of these suites in the country for a private backer. Eventually this led to Jocelyn forming her own post-production facility, jos-online editing studios, and the progression from garage to home offices to finally a well-supported commercial post-production facility comprising of up to four editing studios became her success story. Many household known TV shows of the late 90s and 2000s would have had Jos’s touch incorporated.

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Often Jos would be found jogging backwards and forwards between frames (with the accompanying squeaks and gurgles of the unnatural audio resultant utterings!) finding the most appropriate timing and image for the cut or freeze or transition; surely the seed of subconscious study in motion were planted in these twenty odd years of creative detailed scrutiny of frozen tiny jumps in motion and the marrying of the same into the seamless output of video and TV?

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15 years ago Jocelyn was struck down by an as then unknown auto-immune disease; ultimately forcing her to sell her creative outlet of the studios. Then began a long and arduous standoff with illness and isolation as Jos’s physical being was gradually shutdown more and more and the constant pain, fevers and growing arthritis challenged any creative outlets.

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The family moved to Grahamstown in 2007 and Jos continued to produce the occasional video project and chase her artistic passions, editing, graphic designing, layout of books, oil painting and the like. Many of these artistic pursuits were rendered impossible by the disease as the physical limitations often prevented Jos from finishing a painting or a study. When things were extremely tough physically Jos was often bed-ridden and any creative outlets were stymied. At this point Jos resorted to her trusty IPAD and the marvellous tools and apps that this opened – soon Jocelyn was drawing with her index finger and an additional manageable creative outlet was born.