I got a smile as big as the Brooklyn Bridge, as my lady love Miss Kier Kirby might say! I just won my second consecutive Crystal Award of Excellence from the Society of Women in Communications. I won for 'Best Single News Feature,' which is usually always dominated by The Blade (the big daily)...but not THIS YEAR!!!
Last year, I won top prize for 'Best Feature Series,' but the competition wasn't as fierce.This year, I knew I won some kind of award, but didn't realize I'd win the TOP one; I was expecting a Merit Award.

But I was up against The Blade and another big paper...and my profile piece on this local filmmaker nabbed the trophy!!!!!

The piece is below...

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Lens Cap
A behind-the-scenes look at the national rise of a Toledo filmmaker

by Jason Webber

Jeez, what’s a guy gotta do to get kidnapped in Colombia these days?

Try as he might — and he’s trying his damndest — Toledo native, financial planner and filmmaker Carleton “Cap” Averill II can’t find anyone to do the deed.

Averill recently returned to the South American country to film footage for his new film “Kidnapped in Bogota.” The plot: He walks up to Bogota natives and asks them, in a polite way, to kidnap him. Should be easy enough; kidnappings in Colombia have been featured news for decades. But all Averill gets for his Borat-like antics are confused looks and hearty laughs from Bogota residents. Averill is disappointed. Is this the same kidnap-happy Colombia that provided the backdrop for “Romancing the Stone?”

Actually, Averill’s kidding. The whole film is a joke; he’s poking fun at the stereotype of Colombia as a kidnap and murder hotbed.

“It used to be bad, sure,” says Averill, a Jack Nicholson-like grin spreading across his face. “But it’s gotten a lot safer in the last decade. There was one kidnapping last year. Per capita, there’s a better chance of being kidnapped in the U.S. than in Colombia.”

So the kidnapping thing hasn’t worked out yet. Averill’s filmmaking career? Now that’s another story.

Young heart roams free

The man who would grow up to be an international film festival-winning director and an expert in financial matters (he runs the financial planning firm Cap Averill II and Associates Inc.) started out as a timid boy attending Sylvania’s Stranahan Elementary School, terrified that the school bus would never take him home (“My kindergarten teacher Ms. Bettinger finally told me to get over myself.”)

Seated amidst the dim lighting of the Claddagh Irish Pub, nursing a Black & Tan, Averill recalls a childhood sprinkled with the seeds of what would later grow to become his big obsessions in life — music, photography, and audio. Growing up in a modest house across Central Avenue from the Stranahan Estate (now part of Wildwood Metropark) he first picked up a guitar at the age of 5, learning Jim Croce songs from a hippie guitar player. Around 8, his grandfather gave him a box of old cameras, which sparked a lifelong interest in photography. [He also had a cassette tape recorder that would mark a pivotal event in his young life.]

When Cap was 6, his dad Cap Averill Sr., a former schoolteacher who became a financial planner, was sticken with Fisher Syndrome, a rare, debilitating disease similar to multiple sclerosis. While his dad lay for weeks in a hospital bed, Cap Jr. decided to cheer him up by recording a bunch of songs from his 45 RPM records onto a cassette tape. Between songs, he taped himself acting as a deejay, cracking jokes and doing whatever he could to cheer up his dad. This was in the ’60s, long before anyone knew what a “mix tape” was.

“Dad loved it,” says Averill, smile widening and green eyes twinkling. “And he got better.” Today, father and son remain close and Cap Sr. operates the Financial Advisory Clinic.

As he got older, he shook off his grade-school shyness to play guitar in a variety of bands, doing mostly Beatles covers. His interest in music grew; he spent hours listening to guitar gods like Clapton and Santana, as well as the alternative bands of the day — Paul Revere and the Raiders, Frank Zappa, 5 Man Electrical Band and the like. Upon graduating from Sylvania Northview High School in 1981, he enrolled at the Ohio State University. Always fascinated by human behavior, he studied sociology and psychology.

By his own admission, Averill was a “weird college kid” who couldn’t sit still academically. He was interested in so many things, and he couldn’t choose just one. He transferred to UC Santa Barbara to enroll in the world-renowned Brooks Institute School of Photography to fulfill his love of 35 millimeter photography. He also studied philosophy and physics.

“I studied whatever I thought was applicable to my life at the time,” says Averill. But after seven years of jumping around from subject to subject, Averill had a problem.

“I had accumulated way more than enough credits to graduate with a four-year degree, but not enough in one subject to graduate with a degree in something.”

So in 1988, after seven years of spending his father’s money on tuition, young Averill dropped out of college, and returned to Northwest Ohio to work in his dad’s office. By this time, Averill, Sr. was not exactly grinning at his prodigal son.

“My father was very disappointed,” says Averill. “But everything turned out OK in the end...”

Divorced loser bastards

Returning to Northwest Ohio wasn’t that bad for Averill. He was learning the financial planning business from his father and giving guitar lessons out of Pro Music and Village Electronics in Sylvania, then owned by Jack Runyon, an orchestra leader who played with Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey and many other big-band greats. Sometimes he would jam with The Bears, a Sylvania band who made a name for themselves playing with guitar virtuoso Adrian Belew.

Averill once caught a Belew concert out in Santa Barbara and it blew him away.

“I left for California thinking that’s where you had to go to make it in the music business. But here I am at a Belew show and he’s playing with these three guys from Sylvania.”

In ’91, he started a band named Onion with some old friends. They became quite popular in the Toledo area, playing at Frankie’s and other music clubs. For Averill it was the choicest of opportunities — getting a chance to write and play original compositions with old friends, including his childhood buddy Kim Kalouria. Onion broke up in 1998, but Kalouria and Averill still played music and socialized together.

As the millennium turned, the duo found themselves hanging out together even more frequently due to an unsavory circumstance — both men were going through divorces. In between conversations about where their respective marriages had gone wrong, they started crafting a story based on the two of them and what they were going through. They even gave their characters names — Chris for Cap’s character, Ken for Kim’s character — and they started developing a rudimentary plot outline. Nothing much was discussed about actually writing a script or shooting a film.

That is until the day Kalouria showed up with a copy of Entertainment Weekly, and exclaimed “Check out my little bro!” He opened the magazine to the annual “Big 50,” which ranked the 50 most powerful people in Hollywood. There at number 49 was Kim’s younger brother Sheraton, who was then the executive vice-president of Universal/NBC.

Suddenly, this idea about making a little film didn’t seem so far-fetched. Kalouria hesitated slightly over the idea, as he didn’t want his brother being accused of nepotism, but Averill calmed him down, telling him that they would only ask Sheraton if they could pick his brain for ways to improve the film.

So they sat down and formally wrote the screenplay for their debut film “Out of the Shadows” (“Kim wanted to call it ‘Divorced Loser Bastards’”) and Kalouria borrowed a video camera he just bought for his daughter.

And ... action!

Hanging in Hollyweird

It was mid-2004 and Averill was nervous. Really nervous. Here he was in Los Angeles, pacing the hardwood floors of the big, Robin Leach-worthy house on Mulholland Drive that overlooked the back lot of Universal Studios. Meanwhile, Sheraton Kalouria was watching the rough cut of “Out of the Shadows.” Or at least he was trying to. Kalouria was the executive producer of the daytime NBC soap “Passions” and kept having to pause the film to field phone calls from the set.

All this was making Averill’s head spin. “What the hell was going on? I mean, here I am, a guy from Toledo, and I’m in a house on Mulholland Drive.” This was just the latest surreal installment of a filmmaking tale that rivals the making of “Apocalypse Now” for drama. During the past year, Kalouria and Averill had shot 220 hours of footage, and edited it down to 90 minutes. Do to the lengthy editing process, they missed the deadline to submit their indie film to the Sundance Festival. And they knew the film still needed work.

As Sheraton watched the film, Averill expected him to offer about 20 minutes worth of tips and suggestions for how to improve it. Instead, he got 11 hours worth of advice. Sheraton offered constructive criticism and advice for nearly every single shot in the film.

Cut to a year later.

The film had been recut to a taut 72 minutes, with nearly all of Sheraton’s suggestions added. By this time, their film company had been christened Mantis and Moon — named after a praying mantis that Averill saw on his mailbox one night during a full moon — and word about “Out of the Shadows” had leaked throughout the Midwest, earning them write-ups in newspapers and features on TV news. Will Graver, a film major at Bowling Green State University, had joined the company as its editor and things were definitely looking up (Averill describes Graver, the young film buff, as “the heart and soul” of Mantis and Moon). Unfortunately, they once again missed the deadline for Sundance, but entered the film in the Hollywood International DV/HD Festival, where it was accepted. The cast and crew all flew out to L.A. to experience the wacky world of film festivals.

Yet, more than 1,100 films had been submitted to the festival and of those, 170 were entered into the competition. Cap, Kim, Will and the rest of the gang just decided to go with the flow and enjoy the week, no matter what the result. On the last day of the festival, everyone gathered at L.A. hotspot The Continental (owned by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) for the award ceremony. Of the 170 films, only 32 would be given an award.

“They got through 30 of the awards and still nothing,” recalls Averill. “Then they came to ‘Best Drama/Feature’ and suddenly they called ‘Out of the Shadows.”

First, everyone at the Mantis and Moon table was dumbstruck. Then they began cheering and crying as it sunk in. After two and a half years of shoots, reshoots, and editing, they had done it.

“On the way to the airport, Queen’s ‘We Are the Champions’ came on the radio. Kim blasted it all the way up, because that’s how we felt.”

Thundering issues

Where were you on June 21, the night of the Big Rain Storm of 2006? Averill and his crew were in his backyard at his home in Delta, gathering around a 19th century farmhouse, filming footage for their nature documentary “Thunder on the Farm.” As the torrential rains flooded several Toledo neighborhoods, Averill was filming animals scurrying for cover from the storm, at one point, diving underwater in a pond so he could shoot lightning strikes in the sky from the point-of-view of a frog or fish.

At only 32 minutes and de-void of dialogue, “Thunder on the Farm” earned an “honorable mention” from both the Rural Route Film Festival and the International Wildlife Film Festival. You can find info on this film and “Out of the Shadows” at the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com).

But in the midst of filming “Thunder,” Averill’s mind was turning toward more serious topics. Though he was having a great time being able to combine his love of pictures and sound into the medium of film, he wanted to turn his HD camera onto something that could make a difference or say something of value. He wanted to incorporate his financial planning expertise and the sociology and psychology he studied in college.

The result is “Wants and Needs,” an in-progress examination of America’s financial state and how different generations view money.

“[The film] dives right into the financial hardcore, which is a bit dry,” says Averill, taking another swig from his Black & Tan. “But it’s really important to look at the way our current financial decisions are negatively affecting future generations.” Get Averill on the subject of wasteful spending and his normally friendly eyes grow cold and steely.

“Bush was elected on the premise of controlling spending, yet he’s spending it like a drunken sailor. Bottom line: If that continues, we’re in trouble.” Though “Shadows” and “Thunder” have both received national acclaim and interest from film distributors, Averill knows that “Wants and Needs” might be a tougher sell. But he doesn’t care.

“Realities are harsh, nobody wants to watch that. Even I get sick to my stomach when I see the true stories we’ve shot so far. Everyone’s running around arguing about politics, while we’ve trained the leaders we put into office to avoid hard issues, because if they do, we vote them out of office. It’s become a political hot potato to be ‘real.’”

Once “Wants and Needs” is complete, Averill plans to jump right into what he calls “the greatest thing we’ve ever worked on,” a paranoid thriller called “Nothing Happened.” Think “The Office” meets “Mad Max” and you have the plot — an unnamed, white-collar office building in Toledo is at the epicenter of a worldwide, U.S. government- led, financial meltdown that results in everyone in the building having to flee to Upper Michigan and barricade themselves in a farmhouse, while learning to survive in a post-financial apocalyptic world. All the Averill motifs are present — money, human behavior, intense images and drama.

“There are a lot of apocalypse movies, but it’s always terrorism, a meteor or the like. But [“Nothing Happened] is about mistakes of the past coming back to haunt us. The apocalypse happens when interest on the national debt goes one cent higher than our ability to pay as a country. So the foreign investors in our country’s bonds pull out. And all hell breaks lose. Game over, America.”

Dang, heavy stuff. But Averill’s anything but a brooding, gloomy director. He’s quick to smile, wears loud shirts (a la Hunter S. Thompson) and recently married his Colombian wife, Jenny, who he met in Bogota a few years back. Things are definitely looking up for the guy’s film career. He’s well-known on the festival circuit — which has always been in a hard-to-get-noticed realm, fielding offers from distributors, and gearing up for the public premieres of “Out of the Shadows” and “Thunder on the Farm” at the Maumee Indoor Theater on Friday, June 8. And yes, a trip back to Colombia is planned sometime during the next six months so Averill can continue to film footage of him getting his Borat on for “Kidnapped in Bogata.” But he’s always happy to return home.

“I enjoyed going to school in California, but I’m a Midwest guy,” he says. “A lot of people argue its harder to make movies when you’re not in a big city, but I think its much easier. It’s less cutthroat, and I like staying in that Midwest pouch. The Toledo-area is just great.”

Very niiiiice, Cap. High five!

Snake ure Awsome!!! Always knew u were

Congrats, you.



Well deserved.

OK, I was about to fall out of my chair here I saw that first sentence and zoomed in on Miss Lady Kier and thought you got to interview her or somethin LOVE HER

Again, I will say it...I AM SO FUCKING PROUD OF YOU!!!

When you're feeling down and feeling like your life is going nowhere...remember this night...your life is going everywhere!!!!



Congratulations, honey!!!

(PS: Mom told me to tell you she's proud of you too! I didn't tell you this, but, she writes down everything you're doing so she can brag )

Never say die, never say why (Oh yeah)

Make your mama happy
Make somebody proud
Never say die, never say why
Stand up, touch the clouds

Billy got a test in geometry
He didn't study night before
He wants a steady job and a salary
So I guess he gotta study more
That's why we're sayin'

Make your mama happy
Make somebody proud
Never say die, never say why
Stand up, touch the clouds

Annie went 2 college, got a Ph.D.
Drive a BMW
All the things Annie ever wanted 2 be
She was when she finished school
That's why we're sayin'

Make your mama happy
Make somebody proud
Never say die, never say why
Stand up, touch the clouds

(Yeah, yeah)
(Somebody proud)

People of 2morrow want a better way
It gets harder and harder every day
Don't let 'em fool ya, don't cha let 'em say
U're any less than they are
Baby, U're here 2 stay!

Oh yeah [x3]
Happy
Make your mama happy
[Edited 11/14/07 19:00pm]

Oh, and CONGRATS!

applekisses said:

Honey, I said it before and I'll say it a million more times: I could've never done this tonight without knowing you. I love you so much. Thanks for being there for me during this past decade.

SnakePeel said:

We're family...and will always be. I'm gonna always be around to bug you You know that And I love you too.

wooooohooo!!!!! congratulations!


ok back to actually read the article now

it was the good omen of the hunter s thompson tshirt

fantastic read snakey!
the people you get to meet and the
stories you tell! be proud babe

emm said:

Thanks, hon. I'm really honored by it. I just really can't believe it.

Hey congrats!!!

Most excellent!

Awesome