🎹 Music + 📖 Fiction + 📣 Marketing

Author: Carl Franke (Page 3 of 5)

Using DALL-E To Create Graphics You’d Never Visualize In Photoshop

The theme of this year’s Pennsylvania Apartment Association APARTogether conference was AI. With the event taking place at Valley Forge Casino Resort, I figured it would be great opportunity to use DALL-E Open Ai imagery and show George Washington leading a state-wide community of apartments, infused by a gambling theme!

Included with ChatGPT 4.0, DALL-E is one of many “text-to-image” AI tools that brings imaginative visions to life. Before these types of tools, if you asked me to create an illustrative graphic with a Founding Father standing amid a bustling array of apartment towers, I’d likely juggle several stock art photos, vectorize them and try to create a cohesive color, levels and saturation level to each layer.

Speaking of gambling, text-to-image tools feels like a slot machine at times, and the results of your query (like a bet) leading to fantastic rewards. Even if you don’t like the results, they often provide inspiration to create something even better.

Pennsylvania Apartment Association at Valley Forge Casino
Pennsylvania Apartment Association at Valley Forge Casino, near King of Prussia
Pennsylvania Apartment Association at Valley Forge Casino with Philadelphia in the background

Making Art In the Age Of Content

If you consider yourself an artist in any capacity, this video is for you: “Making Art In The Age Of Content”

Some highlights for me:

➡️ “The most modern form of art: Create something to serve the algorithms in an attempt to make it go virile.”

➡️ “There is no way to have a daily process that’s repeatable with guaranteed results, but these platforms encourage that and they force you to have higher output and open up the chances that something is going to take off.”

➡️ “The democratization of self expression is what turned everything into a competition.”

➡️ “No matter how much you put your heart and soul into something, it’s just as disposable as everything else on any given platform.”

➡️ “The algorithms exist, even though it’s not their intention, to continue to perpetuate a divisiveness between real artists and content creators.”

Death Of The Follower & The Future Of Creativity On The Web

This was a great presentation from Patreon CEO Jack Conte at SXSW. He speaks of striving for deeper connections opposed to more connections, and the relentless chaotic pursuit of chasing algorithms within social channels. His history of social media in the beginning alone is fascinating, especially if you lived through it in the late 90s and early 00s. So much has changed for the creative artist that is looking to promote their works.

The extreme “death of the follower” seems true on Facebook and Instagram. But on TikTok, the ability to toggle between followers and “For You” creates allows for two unique feeds offering the best of both worlds, and presents an powerful outlet for artists. Their works can seep into the “For You” feed as expected, potentially suited content that can transcend.

Focusing on gaining followers only can be a zero sum game. What percentage of your followers are truly the ones that purchase and promote your brand, opposed to the obligatory occasional “like”?

Turning Ideas Into Video Presentations With Fliki.ai

Starting Out With The Ridiculous

For the Big Game this Sunday, I wanted to reveal a fantastical way that Taylor Swift could make her grand entrance into the stadium. Using Fliki.ai, I described a few different scenes, chose background music and opted to have the narration spoken and included as captions. The results were a mix of hilarious, highly accurate and entertaining. The Taylor Swift imagery looked remarkably like her. Even the correct team colors were represented for the fans’ jerseys and hats, with distorted versions of their logos.

@genxdada

How Taylor Swift will arrive for the big game. #superbowl #taylorswift #fliki #aivideo

♬ original sound – Carl Franke

What Is Fliki.ai?

With Fliki, you can turn products, text, blogs, Powerpoint presentations and flat out any idea into a videos with AI voices. With the free version, you can create 5 minutes of credits per month with a watermarked output. The paid Standard and Premium accounts allow for Full HD 1080p videos and a wealth of more options for voices, imagery, video clips, stickers and music assets.

This is a great tool for creating content for social, promotional videos, educational videos and corporate presentations. Creation is blazing fast and editor is simplistic and intuitive.

What Happens After You Save Someone’s Life?

My Dad Raymond D. Franke saved Air Force Brigadier General William W. Spruance’s life back in 1961, pulling him out of a swamp as he sank badly burned. I never researched the General until now, but it altered the course of his life’s mission:

“After surviving a near-fatal crash as a passenger in a T-33 aircraft in 1961, resulting in extensive burns, he began a lifelong and legendary safety mission that took him to dozens of bases in the U.S. and around the world to make over 2,000 presentations on flying safety and crash survival. He was the first reserve officer awarded the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal for one of his three trips to Vietnam when he gave 100 presentations to over 10,000 people, at 58 bases, in 60 days.”

166th Airlift Wing

You can read the full story here.

Rosario’s vs. Oreland Pizza

In Be Home By Dinner, the protagonist, Garvey Nolan, frequents Rosario’s pizzeria in Oreland on a few different occasions. Rosario’s is the sole pizzeria in East Oreland and Oreland Pizza (recently revamped) is the sole pizzeria in West Oreland.

On a recent lunch break, I visited Rosario’s. Upon entering, the two cow bells tied to the door clanged and the guys in the back making sandwiches peered over and shouted hello. The sparse tables looked identical to the ones that I sat at during my youth, along with the stacked walls of cardboard pizza boxes, the humming beverage fridge, the counter for paying, the dusty framed photos and the TV in the back corner. I felt as if I stepped back in time, awaiting my old schoolmates to barrel through the door with their Catholic school uniforms on. Rosario’s is a no-frills experience, but you don’t need it with good food. Two plain slices and a drink for $5.00 is a great deal as well. I poured on the garlic salt like old times.

Back in the day, a woman named Erin took the orders from the counter, her hair tied back and white apron caked with sauce and dough. She had a pen over her ear and asked what we were up to, always addressing our first names and asking how our parents were doing. I don’t know where she is these days, but she taught me the power of the dedicated repeat customer — an alluring guardian that kept a watchful eye and ear on us.

I decided to put a poll on Facebook to see which Oreland pizzeria was favored the most. I then shared it to the Oreland Group and the stories that poured in were many, respecting both sides. Of 189 votes, Rosario’s won at 57%. Stop in for a slice the next time you’re cruising down Pennsylvania Avenue and feeling hungry.

View the results on Facebook.

Ewok Adventures

In 2007, I created a stop motion animation at my house in Fishtown starring an Ewok action figure that I had since 1983, simply titled Ewok!

The video starts with the Ewok being buried in the backyard. He resurfaces, finds his way to the back door and enters the home. A couple of Jamaican toys greet him and are delighted to dance with him. But the majority of toys and household objects are trying to destroy him.

In a fight to save his renewed life, the Ewok battles a potato scrubber, an egg slicer, a swordsman, a dart board, a possessed TV and more. After drinking a bottle of Yuengling Lager, and charmed by one of the home’s human inhabitants, the Ewok continues the fight but is trapped by a large multi-legged monster covered in blue lights.

Luckily, the Ewok’s old friends (Dr. Evil from Austin Powers and President George Washington) come to the rescue. They then celebrate by lighting Snakes, a classic entry level firework, on the back patio. The Snakes char the Ewok’s face, but he survives.

Inspired by this video, 14 years later, my son Wesley made a sequel called Ewok 2. (He also made several others.) Below are both videos. Check ’em out!

Ewok

Ewok 2: By Wesley Franke

Ewok! later inspired my wife Melissa to create our wedding invitations. She had never even seen one Star Wars movie but was suddenly asking for more old action figures that were in a basement shoebox. As Wesley became a Star Wars fan, Melissa has now seen Episodes I – IX.

Ewok and wedding rings
Ewok wedding invitation
Star Wars wedding invitation
Star Wars themed wedding invitation
Ewok Star Wars wedding invite

I Love A Parade

It’s a song my Dad sung when I was a kid as he did monotonous chores. I thought he was quoting Chevy Chase from National Lampoon’s Vacation. But, he was really singing a song from 1931 written by Harry Richman that has been covered by many. Regardless, “I Love A Parade” made for the perfect title for a Be Home By Dinner chapter set on July 4th, 1985 in Oreland, PA, during the frenzy of the parade’s start, when a stolen Hustler magazine seemed more important to protagonist, Garvey Nolan.

The Fourth of July Parade is arguably the best day in Oreland. Unlike the nearby Glenside parade, which starts at 4pm and is laden with alcohol, the Oreland parade starts at a sleepy 10am. Bystanders are more likely to hold thermoses of coffee over beer.

Although not as longstanding and lengthy as the neighboring Glenside parade, the Oreland parade is just enough to have previous and current residents meld together. Also, the route is an intimate journey that weaves through the neighborhood, opposed to just major arteries. Homeowners lucky enough to live on the parade route have a supreme destination for family and friends year after year. 

It’s a given that you’ll see the helicopter from the Vietnam War and the countless line of Corvettes. Why the Corvettes (some not even classics yet)? I don’t know.

As a child, my parents let me ride my Big Wheel in the parade and later my black Huffy. As you can see in the photos below, I had a standard Fourth of July striped shirt that spanned years. 

Oreland Parade Via Big Wheel

Above: Careening through the bicylists in pursuit of ice cream sandwiches, Otter Pops and hot dogs.

Redford Road In Oreland PA

Above: I try to look happy while staring into the sun and having my black Huffy transformed.

Above: Going the wrong way down Allison Road. This is awesome!

One of the many versions of “I Love A Parade”, by Joey Heatherton.

In celebration of July 4th, here’s the entirety of Chapter 17: I Love A Parade from Be Home By Dinner. Read and enjoy!

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