{"id":1122,"date":"2014-09-09T15:41:25","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T19:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephaniesilberwordsworks.com\/?p=1122"},"modified":"2014-09-11T12:09:07","modified_gmt":"2014-09-11T16:09:07","slug":"you-have-to-believe-we-are-magic-nothing-can-stand-in-our-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hometeamproductions.tv\/wordsworks\/you-have-to-believe-we-are-magic-nothing-can-stand-in-our-way\/","title":{"rendered":"YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE WE ARE MAGIC (nothing can stand in our way)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog title was Vic’s idea.\u00a0 He knew I was struggling with the writer’s curse: lack of initiative, lack of inspiration, and an unhealthy dollop of depression.<\/p>\n

“Just take it from the song title and go from there,” he told me.<\/p>\n

Of course, it’s the old Olivia Newton-John song, MAGIC<\/a>.\u00a0 Cheesy and dated now, but back then it felt ethereal and deeply meaningful for us.<\/p>\n

\"magic<\/a>It was the summer of 1980.\u00a0 Vic and I had hit the road, as we followed the Philadelphia Phillies’ farm club, the Reading Phillies, shooting Vic’s first directorial effort, CHASING A DREAM.<\/p>\n

A heady time it was, too, especially for a baseball novice like me, in a young relationship with a life-long sports fanatic.\u00a0 We road-tripped from Reading, PA, to Bristol, CT, Westhaven, Waterbury, back to Reading, trailing the team bus, with Newton-John’s MAGIC blasting from the car radio.\u00a0 The ballparks were small, the outfields verdant.\u00a0 The evenings were soft and long.\u00a0\"magic<\/a> The light was golden and the crack of a bat connecting with a ball was a heart-pounding thrill.\u00a0 It was a perfect way to discover America’s pastime.<\/p>\n

Certainly, this ball club was a team touched by baseball’s potent brand of magic.\u00a0 With a line-up that featured superstars-to-be Mark Davis, Ryne Sandberg, Ozzie Virgil, and Bob Dernier, they were rich in talent \"magic<\/a>and they were hungry.\u00a0 At home and on the road, we savored the experience of this quintessential slice of the American pie, from the groupies and the glory to the endless bus rides, cheap motels, and dingy locker rooms.\u00a0 The wives had plenty to say, too.\u00a0 This was not an easy life for them; little money, no guarantees.<\/p>\n

It seems like a dream to me now.\u00a0 I was running around with a clipboard, collecting signatures for release forms, lugging and minding the equipment bags, soaking it all in, feeling as fully alive as perhaps I ever had.\u00a0 I was discovering what it meant to make a film.\u00a0 To document experience.\u00a0 To capture an essence.\u00a0 I was just a PA, but it was utterly \"magic<\/a>fulfilling to me, as the medium brought to bear all of my skill sets, all of my passions, from the visual element (I was oil painting in those days), to the human interaction, with its inherent drama, to the construction and telling of stories.<\/p>\n

I was falling in love, on so many levels I was giddy with it.<\/p>\n

\"magic<\/a>At season’s end, Mark Davis, the lefty hurler, Virgil, the prankster catcher, and the fast and scrappy Bobby Dernier were called up to the big leagues.\u00a0 They’d done it.\u00a0 They made it to The Show.<\/p>\n

That year, the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series.\u00a0 You cannot make this stuff up — truth really is stranger than fiction.\u00a0 It was all captured on film.\u00a0 The result \"magic<\/a>was raw, it was evocative, it was truthful.\u00a0 It was the beginning of both my career and Vic’s.\u00a0 We’ve never stopped chasing our dreams, sometimes to our detriment, but always with full hearts and unabashed passion.\u00a0 We married the following year, and have been blessed with a love that only grows deeper, and work that sustains us, despite struggle and hardship.\u00a0 We have never given up.\u00a0 Nothing can stand in our way.<\/p>\n

\"Magic<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog title was Vic’s idea.\u00a0 He knew I was struggling with the writer’s curse: lack of initiative, lack of inspiration, and an unhealthy dollop of depression. “Just take it from the song title and go from there,” he told … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n