Jef Sewell
Documentary
Jef created LOOK & SEE’s prologue which was conceived as a mashup of Wendell Berry’s “A Timbered Choir,” Koyaanisqatsi & Godspeed You Black Emperor! Later, this Prologue became the basis of the film’s unconventional trailer.
Jef edited THE UNFORESEEN’S trailer, produced & raised funding & (with Lee Daniel) “broke & entered” to capture the film’s climactic end sequence within the ruins of the protagonist’s Xanadu.
Jef helped design the UNFORESEEN’s visual language. For his work creating many of the film’s motion graphics, Jef was nominated for OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN GRAPHIC DESIGN OR ANIMATION at the inaugural Cinema Eye Awards.
Humor
Jef also co-founded a humor publisher named Despair.com. Despair, Inc. is best known for creating Demotivators®, a poster-series lampooning the then-ubiquitous corporate motivational posters. This early viral Internet phenomena has since sold millions of products (see Elon Musk’s SpaceX office) and spawned the demotivational poster meme. After successfully trademarking the “Frownie” emoticon, Despair also enjoyed brief global infamy for announcing we were suing millions of Internet users for infringement as they were using our logo in their emails and text messages. (NYTimes)
To promote Despair’s first book, Jef co-directed and shot a series of short films. A few appear below.
“DISCONFIRMATION”
Interaction between execs & employee subordinates is an unfortunate necessity in most organizations. In this segment, Dr. E.L. Kersten explains disconfirmational communication tactics which can be helpful in disabusing employees of their narcissistic delusions of adequacy.
“ADDRESSING EMPLOYEE COMPLAINTS”
In this installment of the award-winning management training series from Despair.com, company founder Dr. E.L. Kersten provides executives and managers with a shockingly effective strategy for responding to the complaints of their subordinates.
“ORGANIZATIONAL STORYTELLING”
Dr. E.L. Kersten provides a helpful overview of organizational storytelling techniques that can aid executives and managers in the creation of a “Radically Demotivating™” work environment.