Because of lack of resources, I’ve taken to “producing” my sketch ideas with AI. This is not a recommended solution. See that logo? AI generated. And yet I had to run it through photoshop to really get it right. There were a couple of things I already had to tweak, besides. Anyway, on to more creative things:
Pirate Patch was something I wrote back in 2004, originally for Prairie Home Companion. A quick little commercial pun, from back in the day when Big Pharma was pushing patches for everything as a drug delivery system to work to fight smoking, pain, addiction, hunger. It was rejected (my sketch, not the patches). I sent it around but nothing worked.
Doing the blog has reminded me of a lot of material I had forgotten about, but this sketch always stayed in the back of my mind, especially come "Talk Like a Pirate Day." So, I once I got to playing around with AI, I decided to use it. But here's the thing about AI; it's a bear to work with. After doing a couple of other things with it, I just gets annoying to use. And the idea of attempting to do an office set up with two co-workers conversing seemed like a daunting task and then trying to do a character who has to go through a before & after change? AI would totally change the guy's look. I'm sure an expert could pull it off, but I'm just a writer, so I decided to do it as audio. And even then, it's tricky to get audio that doesn't sound like a bored actor reading his lines.
I finally got them to a point I was satisfied with, then realized I hadn't done the character's 'after' dialogue, so I just recorded myself as the post-pharm co-worker, because my goofy voice works in the role. And frankly, it just seemed easier that way. It's up at Sound Cloud and here it is for your enjoyment. Expect me to repost this every "Talk Like a Pirate Day."
Doing the blog has reminded me of a lot of material I had forgotten about, but this sketch always stayed in the back of my mind, especially come "Talk Like a Pirate Day." So, I once I got to playing around with AI, I decided to use it. But here's the thing about AI; it's a bear to work with. After doing a couple of other things with it, I just gets annoying to use. And the idea of attempting to do an office set up with two co-workers conversing seemed like a daunting task and then trying to do a character who has to go through a before & after change? AI would totally change the guy's look. I'm sure an expert could pull it off, but I'm just a writer, so I decided to do it as audio. And even then, it's tricky to get audio that doesn't sound like a bored actor reading his lines.
I finally got them to a point I was satisfied with, then realized I hadn't done the character's 'after' dialogue, so I just recorded myself as the post-pharm co-worker, because my goofy voice works in the role. And frankly, it just seemed easier that way. It's up at Sound Cloud and here it is for your enjoyment. Expect me to repost this every "Talk Like a Pirate Day."
