In Chapter 17 of 17 in her 2009 Capture Your Flag interview, filmmaker Tricia Regan finds reflective moments, such as long walks on the beach, help her compare risks and rewards, await decision-making moments, and remain open to new possibilities. Central to each are patience, thinking through ideas, and a remaining positive that the appropriate path will appear given a balance of focus and time.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: What do you get out of solitude? For example while you were making your film you took long walks on the beach to process, to think. How does that contribute to that self-confidence?
Tricia Regan: Yeah. This is where it could get a little trippy. But I think most creative people, most people who are really, really good at what they do, probably have that same sense of mystery about it. I sometimes feel like there’s nothing particularly talented about me. I just have the patient to wait for the solutions and recognize them when they come and to not be afraid to try things that I’m not sure are right with the hope that they lead me to the solution. So those long walks on the beach that I would take everyday, I would take them when I was shooting, I would take them when I was editing, were really just a way of sort of opening up, not thinking about it or thinking about it. Starting the walk or the day or going to bed the night before, this is our problem, which character goes next, this is our problem.
So I feel like that gave from providence. It didn’t come from me having a brilliant idea. I just thought about it for long enough until there it was and there was the solution.