[ANNOUNCE] Conlang film in production, comments requested

FOR WIDE DISTRIBUTION - PLEASE FORWARD

See: http://www.spinnoff.com/zbb/viewtopic.php?t=28210 for original
message & more details

O fellow conlangers:

This is about the short film "Conlang"
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFc3CvMMY48> - that is just a test for
the real thing, set to begin production in two weeks.

We would like to give them as much support as we can in this. Your
(very prompt) comments, suggestions, jokes, revisions, etc. (in
addition to the specific items mentioned below) would be greatly
appreciated.

Additionally, if you have items you could lend as typically conlangery
props to use in the film (e.g. themed tshirts, books, & other
paraphenalia) please let us know.

Please DO forward this email to anyone who would be interested. If you
have comments that you would like to discuss publicly, please post
them on the ZBB thread linked above.

For all other comments, please use the emails below.

Thanks,
 Sai Emrys
 President, Language Creation Society

P.S. Please copypaste this line to your 'to' when replying:

baldvinkari@gmail.com, davemaulbeck@gmail.com, mam@swandivefilms.com,
lcs@conlang.org




---
Salutations!

My name is Baldvin and I'm an Icelandic graduate film student at
Columbia University in New York. I've always been very interested in
languages but was first introduced to the magic realm of conlangery
through my boyfriend, whom you ZBB folk probably know as "vecfaranti".
On a side note, vecfaranti's very own "Uscaniv" plays an important
role in the movie as the main character's conlang.

Anyway, I've written a short film, CONLANG, that is to be filmed in
New Jersey in about two weeks - and we need your help.

The story is about Carl Tedesco, an avid 26-year-old conlanger who has
a chance of becoming the president of his Conlanging Club, as the
current president is going away to work on a new Star Trek movie as
Chief Klingon Adviser. But before he can accept the presidency, he is
challenged by another club member, a power-hungry Esperantist by the
name of Kip (who plans to turn the club into an Esperanto League). The
winner is to be decided in a "Herculean Tournament", as described in
the Club Laws. Carl and Kip will compete for the presidency in a
series of gruelling linguistical trials that include etymological and
phonetic challenges, a Klingon crossword puzzle and a Scrabble game in
Sindarin.

I don't want to give away the ending, but lets just say that the
greedy Esperantists with their evil plans for world domination and the
abolishment of true artistic conlanging get their just deserts.

But in spite of our honorable intentions, the fact of the matter is
that we lowly filmmakers (however talented in other areas) need the
talent and expertise of real conlangers to make this thing work in a
believable way.

If any of you are interested in helping out with any of the following,
we would be very grateful and would of course acknowledge your
unvaluable contributions in the film's credits.

I should mention that this is a comedy, so we are willing to bend
reality in favor of humor, but preferably without breaking it.

What we need:

Trial #1: An etymology of the Jive term "catch you on the flip side".
(Note: I must confess I'm not sure if "etymology" is the right word
here, since it's a phrase, not a single word. But this phrase was
deemed more interesting and funny than the original challenge of
tracing the word "tooth" to it's Indo-European origins.)

Trial #2: A phonetic account (IPA) of the American National Anthem as
sung with a Southern accent.

Trial #3: A couple of (dirty) limericks in a well-known conlang of your choice.

Trial #4: The Gettysburg Address translated into "hip hop slang" with
generous use of the suffix "-shizzle".

Trial #5: A giant Klingon crossword puzzle.
(Note: An actual, functional crossword puzzle would be great, but this
is a movie so a "fake" one that looks real would suffice.)


Again, any help is greatly appreciated.

Also, if you want to tell us about something that is "totally awesome
and just has to be in the movie or otherwise it can't even call itself
a conlang movie", please feel free to share.

Someone has already tried to tell me about a left-handed, gay
Lithuanian with a red beard or something, but I never really got that
joke.

Thank you all in advance!