My latest illustrated story: Shack In the Middle Of the Forest

By

Anthony Martino

September 5, 2010

This book was illustrated with Earth Friendly Art Supplies.

Page 1.

Far away from the city, there is a house, well not really a house but more like a cabin or a shack. It sits on 25 acres which is a small part of a larger forest, which unbeknownst to its inhabitants is unfortunately threatened with construction development on all sides.

Page 2.

Inside the shack lives an old man with his dog Banjo.

The old man’s face is a little wrinkled and his back is a little bent over.

He has a long beard, a pointy nose and a nasty attitude to boot. Some say he’s lived in the forest all his life which I would say is close to one hundred years. He has no friends or family except for his dog Banjo.

Every morning, the old man drinks his tea while Banjo sits and waits with his leash in his mouth hoping the old man will take him for a walk. The old man walks Banjo because he feels somewhat obligated; the truth of the matter is the old man does not like to wander off into the forest because he finds the air heavy with moisture and fuzzy with haze. Plus in the old man’s own words, “The forest’s inhabitants are nothing but a nuisance!”

Page 3.

Most mornings, the old man and Banjo begin their walk down the brown wooden path that leads from their shack into the woods. The old man always checks the door knob before he leaves to make sure the door is locked. He’s afraid that an unwelcomed guest such as a raccoon could sneak in looking for food.

Page 4

“Speak of the Devil!” the old man says.

“There is PunkaDu the spoiled raccoon feasting on my garbage and then he poos everywhere!”

Page 5.

In the distance, a grey mother wolf can be seen with her cub. “This is odd, wolves typically hang around in packs like some sort of street gang usually up to no good,” says the old man to himself.

Page 6.

To the old man’s right, he runs into the white tail dear twins. In fact the forest is actually named “White Tail Deer Park.” The old man has no use for the deers. In his opinion they do nothing but stare. “Take a picture it will last longer!” the old man screams out to the deers.

Page 7

A little further up the old man and Banjo run into two grizzly bears. Banjo likes the grizzlies, with their big heads and long fur they kind of look like big bushy dogs. But the old man will have none of it. He holds on to Banjo tightly as the old man slowly walks past the bears. The old man thinks to himself, “Those damn grizzlies with their keen sense of personal space and pride, think they own the gosh darn forest. I’m walkin here! I’m walkin here!” shouts the old man as he walks past the grizzly bears.

Page 8.

Suddenly they run into a Big Brown Buffalo, this startles the old man. He has not seen a buffalo in many years. The buffalo reminds the old man of his childhood, he remembers herds of buffalos blackened the flat lands of the forest and when they moved it sounded like distant thunder. “Funny the old man thinks to himself, I never stopped to ask myself what happened to all the buffalo.”

Page 9.

To the old man’s surprise, in a quick instant he finds himself flying through the air because he has just tripped over a pile of broken sticks. As the old man flies through the air, he notices that the broken sticks belong to natures self proclaimed engineer, the beaver. “Not only are you North America’s biggest rodent, but you’re also North America’s biggest jerk!” shouts the old man in anger.

Page 10.

Banjo likes to take a water break by the river. As Banjo leans over to lap up some fresh water, the old man is startled by the Salmon who jump out of the water as they swim upstream. The male salmon come back to the river where they were born once a year in order to fertilize the females. This will then allow the females to lay their eggs underneath the river’s gravel.

“Darn perverts,” the old man mutters to himself.

Page 11.

At this point, the old man and Banjo begin walking back toward their home. This is usually where the old man sees, who he likes to call, “the crazy Indian Chief”. The old man calls him this because the Indian always seems to be talking to himself and when he is not talking to himself you can see him talking to the sky, the river, the plants or the animals. From the distance the old man could hear the Indian muttering the following, “Oh Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds and whose breath gives life to the entire world. I thank you for this wonderful forest and all its creatures.”

“Crazy Indian,” the old man thinks to himself.

Page 12.

As the old man and Banjo approach the end of their walk, a mischievious owl swoops down mistaking the old man’s bald head for a delicious meal. From a distance the old man`s head with his protruding ears looked like a hairless guinea pig to the owl. Startled, the old man quickly waves his fist in the air scaring the owl away.

Page 13.

Tired but feeling somewhat satisfied from their long walk, the old man and Banjo arrive home.

Page 14.

The old man figures that his little buddy (or should I say his only buddy) Banjo is probably hungry after their long walk, so he fills Banjo`s food dish with sheep tripe dog food. Apparently it smells terrible but tastes delicious.

As he is feeding Banjo the old man is interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Who on earth would come to my house?” wonders the old man.

Page 15.

As the old man opens the door, there is a man standing there wearing a hard hat and holding a contract in his hand. “Hello Sir, I work for a company called Extinction. We would like to make some changes around this forest in order to make it more habitable for people. We’ll need to do some building to make this happen but cannot begin building what we will call White Deer Tail Community Park until we get your signature on the dotted line of this contract,” explains the man with the hard hat.

The old man takes a moment to think about it and then asks, “So if I sign your contract can you confirm the following for me:

The racoon will stop eating my garbage?

The wolves will stop roaming the forest like some type of street gang?

The white tail deer will stop spying on me?

The grizzly bears will stop acting like they own the forest?

The beaver will stop leaving piles of sticks everywhere?

The Salmon will stop behaving like a bunch of perverts? I want a respectable forest!

And those darn owls will stop pecking at my bald head?”

The man looks at the old man straight in the eyes and says, “Good Sir, you’ll have no more of nature’s interruptions. Plus we’ll even throw in a signing bonus; instead of this little shack you live in, we’ll build you a great big house.”

“Great! Where do I sign?” says the old man.

Page 16.

With the sound of the birds singing outside the window, the old man decides to lay down for a nap.

Page 17.

Just as quickly as the old man lay down to sleep, he was awakened by sounds he had never heard in the forest before. It sounded like, traffic jams, city ambience, jet engines and loud machinery. “But wait, here in the forest?” the old man asks himself.

Totally frazzled by all the noise, the old man called out for his dog Banjo. “Banjo! Banjo! Where are you?” shouted the old man.

Page 18.

The old man could not find Banjo in the house, so he opened the front door still shouting out Banjo’s name.

But what the old man saw next left him in complete shock.

Page 19.

The Indian Chief was standing in front of the old man’s house and behind him the entire forest was gone. There were no more trees, shrubs, or flowers. No more animals roaming the land, fish in the water or birds in the sky.

There was no more green, brown, blue, yellow or red. Just shades of grey.

None of this was familiar to the old man, except for the Indian Chief who stood there with a tear in his eye.

The old man has always ignored the Indian Chief, but this time he asked him, “What has happened?”

The Indian Chief answered, “Before there was a great forest which included all its inhabitants from the little flower to the birds in the sky, from the ground we walk on and the air that breathes life into you old man and every other living thing, but suddenly a great plague swept the land, the plague is called greed. It came so quickly and it had the letters E-X-T-I-N-C-T-I-O-N written all over its army of bull dowsers, feller bunchers and chainsaws. It destroyed every living thing in its path.”

The Indian continued, “It did not discriminate and took no mercy on any living thing.”

After hearing this, the old man had a huge lump in his throat and he could barely put the words together when he asked the Indian Chief, “Did you see my dog Banjo?”

“As I said, old man it took no mercy on any living thing in its path,” replied the Indian as a tear trickled down his cheek.

Page 20

“Oh my God, what have I done!” thought the old man. “I...I...I didn’t know!

I had the power to stop this but instead I let it happen. They are all gone...even my little Banjo,” cried the old man.

Page 21.

The old man then let out a scream so loud that it shook both heaven and earth!

Page 22

The old man’s scream was so loud, that he awoke himself from his dream.

He could smell the green grass from his window and he could hear the birds singing outside.

And like he does every morning, his little buddy Banjo sits by his bed with his leash in his mouth hoping the old man will take him out for a walk in the forest.

Page 23

Suddenly much to Banjo’s surprise, the old man leapt to his feet, picking Banjo up in his arms shouting, “I LOVE YOU BANJO!” as he gave Banjo the biggest kiss.

“The old man has finally lost his mind,” Banjo thought to himself.

Page 24

This morning, the old man thought he would do something a little different on his walk with his dog Banjo. He stopped to smell the fresh air, enjoy the cool river breeze as it blew across his skin and he marvelled at the beautifully coloured leaves in the trees. He even said hello to all the animals but I think the biggest surprise of all was that he sat to talk to the Indian Chief for a while.

And the Indian Chief shared a story with the old man that went something like this:

Honor the sacred.

Honor the Earth, our Mother.

Honor the Elders.

Honor all with whom we

share the Earth:

Four-leggeds, two-leggeds,

winged ones,

swimmers, crawlers,

plant and rock people.

Walk in balance and beauty.

And on this day, the old man made a promise to the Indian Chief, that as long as he’s alive, he will never sign over the shack in the middle of the forest to anyone.

The End

FIVE FACTS ABOUT YOUTH MARKETS

-Teens send and receive an average 50 text messages a day, reports the Pew Internet.

-Asian (28%) and Hispanic (22%) parents are most likely to sleep in the same room as their children, compared to 15% of Black and 8% of White parents, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

-(this applies to Americans)63% of school lunches served to students are free or purchased at reduced prices, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

-One in three teens has a driver's license at 16, finds the Federal Highway Administration. Ten years ago it was one in two.

-27% of children visiting the ER with dog-bite related injuries were bitten by their own dog, says parenting.com.

Today's Five Facts About Marketing to Women.

-12% of women have interrupted a workout to read/reply to Facebook or Twitter, says Women's Health.

-Women are more likely than men to use Facebook to manage their social lives (41% vs. 34%), says ExactTarget.

-Two in three moms (62%) have purchased back-to-school clothing for their child because it reminds them of something they wore at their kid's age, according to Parents magazine and Lands' End.

-52% of moms take more than 300 photos over the summer, says Rayovac.

-74% of women age 35-60 first turn to the Internet to diagnose medical ailments, compared to 44% of men the same age, says Flexcin International

What’s your social media guru personality type?

Reflecting on many responses I received in regards to my previous blog post about being judged on social media expertise, It brings to my attention, all the different (yet ‘classifiable’) personality characteristics that are prevalent in some of the most recognizable social media gurus on the web. Now I’m not going to get as crazy with this to go as far as classifying a Myers-Briggs type, but I will make this enjoyable to read. Now get on and start sizing up your favorite social media guru’s.

What’s your social media guru personality type?

The Regurgitator – This type of social media guru lives for Twitter and posts, on average 42 Tweets per day, most of which are RTs, containing a slim to in-existent amount of original content (when they do, it is basically a link to a blog post where they regurgitate more information they’ve collected from other people). “Gurges”, as I like to refer to them, will attempt to drive traffic to their poorly arranged websites (usually ending in a .net because the .com version of their domain was unavailable and they were too unoriginal to come up with another one).

The Self Loving Douche – This can be both male and female (just to clarify, since I rarely hear chick’s referred to as douchebags). The characteristics of this social media guru are very one-sided, and by one-sided, I mean, all they care about is themselves. You can identify these types of gurus by looking at their Twitter profile pages (actually going to their twitter.com/doucheynamegoeshere url). On their profile pages you will most-likely find an incorrectly scaled, low-res background image (usually tiled) that shows action shots of them engaging in some type of cult inauguration public speaking event. These gurus are tweeting affirmations who love to thank each and every follower for RTing, but only looking at this as an opportunity to parlay the same message (that they initially posted) over, and over, and over again. Ex: “Thanks so much! RT @user1 @user2 RT @methedouchebag blah blah blah blah blah”. Remember, its not about you, its about them.

The Righteous Warrior- These social media guru personality types seem to be very well perceived and respected (perhaps in fear of being targeted). The Righteous Warrior scours the web in search of other social media gurus to inflict un-requested critique and opinion on other social media gurus. This guru doesn’t like to use the term “guru” and will cringe at the notion that anyone would ever consider themselves, (or social media at that) a defined industry profession. Righteous Warriors love to talk about their feelings and will frequently post tweets about how they’re dying for a hot shower or a beer. They also feed off of fellow warriors, posting what should be private conversations for their 50K followers to see, in hopes of drawing attention to the oh-so-important issues at hand. More than often referred to as a “consultant” or “strategist”, these gurus are usually too scared to list their client line-up or reference any previous campaigns that they may or may not have worked on.

The Hot Chick sans any other redeeming qualities - Twitter comes secondary to this social media guru, with most of the action happening on Facebook (because Twitter only lets you showcase one photo). Hot chick guru started in social media back in 2003 with MySpace and is master bulletin poster. Hot Chick is huge on YouTube with her channel containing everything from how to get that smoky eye look to a video-photo slide show of her most recent head shots. Since her transformation into a brunette, Hot Chick has discovered Gizmodo.com and because of her ridiculous hotness, has been signed on to star in her own reality show, where she tells you about all the awesome iphone apps Ashton Kutcher is downloading.

The Strategist with no Strategy – The SwnS. Going through a mid-life crisis, this guru is possibly a former creative, perhaps with an account or b2b background. “Principal” of super social media llc, this guru is great at talking, extremely articulate and has talked his way through scoring a second round of funding. Notorious plagiarizer, loves PowerPoint but has never touched Keynote. The Strategist with no Strategy gets your business by talking you through the “Social Media Marketing” wiki and re-branding real strategists’ white papers. This guru has 5 interns working for them, conjuring up bullet points on the top-level processes of navigation for social media tools. Loves to use acronyms and trend words like “2.0″ for everything; “BMW 2.0, iPhone 2.0, Vodka-Tonic 2.0″.

Managing brand performance in financial services

In recent years, corporate brands in financial services businesses, both retail-facing and B2B, have become a major factor in the attraction and retention of clients, talent, partners and capital. In this industry it has not always been so, but in today’s crowded, highly competitive global marketplace, a strong brand can be a major source of advantage. Corporate branding has become particularly important in service industries, where economic value is delivered through intangibles and offerings are often seen as interchangeable.
Why have corporate brands come to matter so much in financial services? Much of the answer to this question lies in the growing understanding among corporate executives of what brands actually are and how they add value.
Not so long ago “Brand” might have been defined as “An advertised ‘promise’ linked to a logo and a graphic/visual identity. Advertising makes your brand popular” This definition, while not entirely incorrect, misses the interplay between brand and business strategy, and the link to business economics.
Today, the meaning of “Brand” is linked more closely to value creation: “A Brand is an intangible asset yielding economic returns that is used to attain, over time, a targeted reputation. This is accomplished through management of both the actual experiences delivered to stakeholders and the visual and verbal communications used to express the company’s aspiration and value proposition to these stakeholders.”
The role of brands in overall reputation management has become much clearer in recent years. Brand management includes defining the targeted experience of customers, as well as capturing and conveying strategic intent to all stakeholders including clients and prospects; employees and the broader pool of talent; shareholders; and the broader investment community.

Thirty years ago, the corporate brand for a financial services company was something advertising people worried about, something external to the business itself. Corporate brand management in the industry essentially consisted of periodic – or more accurately, episodic – corporate brand image advertising campaigns, perhaps accompanied by a shift in visual branding elements. Funding justification was often based solely on what competitors were spending, rather than on actual return on investment.
Today, industry leaders have come to understand that brands play a much bigger role in achieving and sustaining success than in the days when virtually all brand issues were delegated to the advertising department.
This shift has come about in part because of the realization among investors that a growing percentage of a company’s financial value, especially in service industries, is accounted for by intangible assets rather than physical assets like real estate, plant and equipment. Intangible assets include the quality of client relationships, employees expertise, intellectual capital, proprietary software and, yes, brands. According to valuation experts, these intangibles can account for as much as 30% of the firm’s total value.
The process of realization was accelerated by the rise of the service-based economy and consolidation within industries, not least in financial services, that occurred in the 80s and 90s, and which is again in full swing. The mergers and acquisitions that marked this period involved placing a value on intangible assets – which began to raise significant questions about, and subsequent exploration of, the value of brands.
Today, it is understood that brand strategy and brand management are fundamental aspects of business strategy and business management. Brand decisions are no longer relegated to the advertising department; most CEOs, divisional heads, corporate strategists and even finance and accounting departments are now intimately engaged in managing the brand assets of their company.


The importance of brands as financial assets and a source of financial success is much clearer than it was even ten years ago. Today the key question should not be whether a brand has real financial value, but rather what skills and level of investment are needed to manage the corporate brand/brand portfolio for optimal financial return.
With this shift of focus there has emerged a need for developing and integrating skill sets that enable real and professional management of brand performance. Many companies are finding that achieving excellence requires a careful combination of both internal resources and specialized external expertise. The increasing professionalization of the brand management function has also led to the creation of the same sort of diagnostic, analytic and measurement tools around brand performance that already exist for the management of other assets and functions.
One of the greatest challenges facing executives in this area is that good brand management now requires a wide variety of skills, from the creative to the analytical to the financial. This must be taken into account when considering the backgrounds of CMOs and brand managers, the composition of their teams and the overall governance of the function within the corporate structure.
Success through good brand management
Companies that take on the challenge of brand management early and effectively can reap significant competitive advantage and even create dramatic turnarounds in market position. One excellent examples in the financial services industry is MasterCard. The focus was investment and top talent on driving brand performance for competitive advantage. The results of a good strategic move are often evident only over time, and continued investment in a winning concept is vital to success.
MasterCard vs. Visa
In the case of MasterCard, for decades the credit card company had struggled against its main rival, Visa. Visa had achieved and sustained competitive advantage over MasterCard by:
1. Finding, keeping and investing behind a clear benefit of high relevance to cardholders at that time: ubiquity of acceptance, nicely captured in their “Everywhere you want to be” message
2. Contractually obligating, unlike MasterCard, its card issuing member banks to invest a specified percentage of card revenues in building the brand
3. Effectively relegating the MasterCard brand to a second tier among shared member banks through #2 and among cardholders through always positioning its brand in communications against “upscale” American Express and never directly against MasterCard
For two decades, the MasterCard team tried to break out of the “perceptual lockdown” Visa had managed to impose on the MasterCard brand. After many attempts to find an angle that could beat ubiquitous acceptance, in the mid-1990s the MasterCard team identified a fundamental shift in values emerging among cardholders that could open an avenue for their brand to beat Visa on relevance to consumers. That lever was a shift away from aspiring to live a rich lifestyle and using a “prestigious” card, toward enjoying the rewards of everyday life and using a card for everyday payments.
The team realized that in this context the brand’s greatest relevance could be not its functionality (including ubiquity), but rather the authentic things it enables people to achieve in their everyday lives. These insights led to the emotionally compelling “Priceless” campaign.
This brand turnaround resulted in significant share gains for MasterCard for the first time in years. It contributed to MasterCard’s successful IPO and the subsequent run up in valuation. Last but not least, least, it resulted in a copycat brand communications effort by VISA (“Life takes VISA”) indicating that Visa is now attempting to play catch up on achieving everyday relevance.

Implications for the future
In closing, here are a few thoughts about what’s needed to properly manage your company’s brand for financial success:
•Recognize and embrace the full complement of skills now needed to achieve excellence in brand management from the analytical to strategic to creative competencies.
•Assemble a crack team to manage the brand, or brand portfolio, performance to the highest standards.
•Achieve and sustain strong brand relevance with customers; brand differentiation is not enough.
•Discover the right concept and sustain investment behind it over an extended period of time, but be prepared to modify or alter course based on shifting customer values.
•Drive the brand concept through to the experiences delivered to each stakeholder group, not just communications.
•Ensure brand strategy is part of the business strategy across the organization.
•Put in place the metrics to measure market and financial performance of your brand(s).

EmailThe 7 Most What The??? Origins of Iconic Pop Culture Franchises

Every one of us has, at some point, watched a weird-ass movie or simply looked back over an insanely original idea and said, "How the hell did they even come up with that?"
The answer is often less original, and way stranger than you could have possibly imagined.
#7.
Super Mario Bros, Alice In Wonderland and Hallucinogenic Mushrooms

The Story You Know:

Mario is such a staple of the video game landscape that we become blind to how weird the whole thing really is. Why is it all about mushrooms? Why would mushrooms give Mario superpowers (including the ability to change size)?

Well, it's because there are in fact mushrooms in the real world that will give you superpowers. Or rather, they'll make you think you have them, right up until the cops wrestle you to the ground.

What Inspired It:
According to Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto himself, it came from one hell of a predicament. In early runs, the developers found that Mario was too large, so in order to make Mario grow and shrink throughout the game they decided to add "magic mushrooms" for him to snack on like the titular character in Alice in Wonderland.

Why would anyone--from Lewis Carroll to Nintendo--associate mushrooms with getting smaller or bigger? It's because of hallucinogenic toadstools like Amanita Muscaria, as folks who have ingested them know, screw with your perception of size.
Of course, Nintendo was probably just basing their mushrooms off of the idea forwarded by Carrol. It's not like they designed the ones in the game to look exactly like the psychotropic that would make a plumber think he was shrinking and turning into a giant in the real world.

Except they totally did... Amanita Muscaria bear a striking resemblance to Super Mushrooms from Mario. Nintendo insists that these similarities are purely coincidental, presumably because they don't want to get sued by the parents of whose kids find these mushrooms and assume they bestow the power to break bricks with their fists.
Either way, it really puts the bizarre world of Mario's "Mushroom Kingdom" in a whole new light.

That must have been some really good shit.
#6.
A Nightmare on Elm Street - A True Story

The Story You Know:
A Nightmare on Elm Street boasted a plot that was two parts Halloween, one part Jason and a dash of Christopher Nolan psycho-noir. It introduced a whole generation of children to insomnia in the form of Freddy Krueger, and is arguably the only decent movie Wes Craven ever made.

What Inspired It:
A true freaking story.
While Freddy Krueger is the amalgamation of a bully from Craven's youth and a homeless person, the concept of people actually dying from their nightmares is a reality all too horrific for Southeast Asian men.

Wes Craven apparently got the idea for A Nightmare on Elm Street after coming across a string of articles in the LA Times from the 1970s and 80s about an alarming number of young, able-bodied, mentally-sound men from Southeast Asia who died in their sleep the most horrifically way possible: via nightmares.
It would all start with a bad dream so distressing that they would spend days trying to stave off sleep. Once they eventually succumbed to Mr. Sandman, they let out a bloodcurdling scream, and died hard.

It is a condition known as SUDS, one of those medical acronyms doctors use to hide the unsettling damned-if-we-know nature of the real name: Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome. Contrary to what the films told us, it typically attacks healthy adolescent men regardless of sexual promiscuity. Between 1982 and 1990 alone, 230 Thai men died from this condition. It is known throughout Southeast Asia as bangungot, dab tsog, laitai, hukuri and other names that you will dread for the rest of your life if you are even just a fraction Southeast Asian.
Only some quick defibrillation has proved effective against this monster, but for real... how many people have ready access to a defibrillator? In fact, SUDS nearly makes Freddy Kruger seem less threatening in comparison. At least we know that the Freddy can be killed.

#5.
The Sixth Sense - A Kids' Show on Nickelodeon

The Story You Know:
Haley Joel Osment sees dead people, then it is revealed that *SPOILERS* Bruce Willis has been dead the whole time and somehow never notices that other people aren't talking to him. *END SPOILERS*

After a few years he started seeing M. Night Shyamalan's career, and then his own.
It became one of the highest grossing films of all time and would be nominated for six Oscars, all seemingly on the strength of that one mind-blowing twist. This baffled some critics; after all, wasn't the whole thing just a two hour-long Twilight Zone episode, complete with the gimmicky revelation at the end?
What Inspired It:
The truth is quite a bit stupider than that. This Academy Award-nominated classic was inspired by something off of the same children's television network that introduced the world to Rugrats, Clarissa Explains It All and Doug. Yup, Nickelodeon.

Technically, SNICK.
It turns out that Shyamalan was one hell of an unofficial member of the Midnight Society in the 90s, since his magnum opus was inspired by an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?.
The episode in particular, "The Tale of the Dream Girl", is basically the same story as The Sixth Sense except it was written for the same audience that followed Salute Your Shorts.

Just like The Sixth Sense, "The Tale of the Dream Girl" tells the story of a kid who is able to eerily and unwillingly communicate with the dead. In this case, his name is Johnny Angelli, and he's portrayed by the same pretty-boy who played Scott Hope on Buffy. At first it appears that Johnny is being stalked by a girl who is clearly way out of his league, but not only does Johnny think that she's dead, there's something strange going on with Johnny. You see, he has this ring which he can't get off his finger, nobody seems to recognize him at work and his mother is so pissed that you would think he wrecked the car, or something.

Only Johnny's sister believes in him. In fact, she's the only person who has really been speaking to him. Oh, and there's this dramatic scene with the ring, and a totally unexpected--because it was original--twist where... well...

Five years later, Shyamalan gets nominated for an Academy Award for Best "Original" Screenplay.
Hell, considering the work he's done since then, it might pay for him to get some more Are You Afraid of the Dark episodes on DVD (it had a nice run of seven seasons) and see what else he can dig up.

There's enough cinematic gold in this season alone to keep Shyamalan busy for decades.
Also, it's worth noting that "The Tale of the Dream Girl" aired on March 26 1994, which means Shyamalan had to be at least 23-years old during that life-changing Saturday night he was at home watching SNICK.
#4.
Predator - A Rocky Sequel

The Story You Know:
It was a B-movie about commandos mated with a B-movie about an alien which resulted in a B+ movie about a commando-hunting alien. The film starred two future-governors, Apollo Creed, a bromantic Bill Duke and even features Jean-Claude Van Damme in a cameo as... you guessed it, the Predator.

Come to think of it, he does look like a predator.

What Inspired It:
Rocky V, or at least a joke from the 80s about how bad it would be should it ever get made. It was funny as hell until Stallone had to go and spoil everyone's fun by actually filming it.

As far as Hollywood was concerned, the Rocky Balboa Universe reached an insurmountable apex on Christmas Day, 1985. In Rocky IV the dude defeated Ivan Drago, avenged Apollo and won the hearts and minds of the Soviet people to end the Cold War. Yes, it was a good moment to be Rocky and/or Stallone, but once Drago tumbled out of the ring, it was widely believed that there was absolutely nothing left for the Italian Stallion to do but collapse under his own weight. With Drago smote, who else remained on Earth for the Stallion to challenge? No one, that's who.

This gave birth to a running joke around Hollywood that Rocky "would have to fight an alien in Rocky V." But screenwriters Jim and John Thomas eventually found this meme and were smart enough to realize that the idea of Stallone fighting an alien in Rocky V would be freaking brilliant 80s-perfection.

The duo "took the joke very seriously and turned out a marvelous screenplay," with the working title Hunter. After producer Joel Silver coaxed Hunter into spending a wild weekend with Commando... the classic science-fiction action film Predator was born.

Hell, they even got Apollo Creed to come get killed by the bad guy again in a key scene. You've got to stop getting yourself into these situations, man.