If You’ve Got Something to Say, Find a Way to Say It: Adam Patterson on Filmmaking, Belfast, and Hot Sauce

By Amy Lonergan

“Belfast is really honest about who it is” – an anthropomorphic sentiment that perfectly encapsulates Patterson’s two loves: the city and its people. I sat down with Dromore-born, now Belfast-based writer and director, Adam Patterson.

Patterson started off doing odd photojournalism jobs for Vice Magazine — perfect work for a self-professed “nosy person”. “People are at the heart of everything I do,” he said, reflecting on the early days of his career. “When I first started in photojournalism, I was fascinated by people. It’s always been about understanding them, spending time with strangers, observing the world around me.” Patterson’s ethnological approach is clear in his documentaries and later works, attributing his love of people to his father: “He grew up in the local pub… his living room was the town’s drinkers… and he passed this knowledge of how they dealt with love, loss and madness to me.”

Patterson began his film career in 2010, working on a BBC documentary about the Chilean miner crisis, which he described as his “baptism of fire” into filmmaking. Although he found success in documentary filmmaking, Patterson confided that he found the form too rigid: “It’s more about the world, not the people,” adding that he finds a “level of protection with [fictional] drama”. He relayed the harrowing feeling of leaving war-stricken families behind at the end of a shooting day — “It takes a lot from you.”

Patterson’s pivot to drama took shape in his debut short film Rough (2021), written with his confère, Declan Lawn. It’s the culmination of talent — and a “massive bromance” — that we have to thank for gripping dramas like Blue Lights and The Salisbury Poisonings. The pair have also recently announced the launch of their own production company — Hot Sauce.

Curious and slightly confused, I enquired about the formulation of the company name. Amused by the question, Adam revealed a few people thought they were idiots, that it sounded like a drinking card game — something you wouldn’t tell your mum about. Though, it seems Sony approved, as the company has now acquired the majority stake in the Belfast-based production company, making Hot Sauce the second-ever Sony-backed NI production company, after Stellify. The duo hopes the company will be a way to build entertainment out of Belfast — to let everyone know you don’t need to flock to LA to make it. You can do it right here.

This is my fifth year living in Belfast, and in almost half a decade, I have not heard anyone speak as fondly about the city. I asked Patterson about the process of trying to authentically represent Belfast in his work, and in an ode-like fashion he told me, “There are lots of reasons to love Belfast. Stuff done here hinges off the shadow of the Troubles. We wanted to be forward-looking about a society that’s really trying to push on.” Patterson went on to discuss his favourite part of the city — the kinship. “Every time you come back to [Belfast], within 10 minutes you’ve heard from your taxi driver what’s happening in the city — shit weather, riots, everything. You feel reconnected again to the place.”

With Blue Lights, Declan and Adam knew they had a significant obligation to authentically and respectfully depict the city. “If we weren’t honest about Belfast, we’d never be forgiven.”

Adam remarked that he takes pride in creating something that unifies Belfast: “Making a drama about cops that everyone from the East to the West loves — that’s a pretty beautiful thing.”

I knew some of our readers would appreciate guidance from a fellow Film Studies graduate — as opposed to the classic “just keep sending your CV out” advice from someone who worked their way up but also conveniently has an uncle who’s the creative director at the BBC. As a chronic writer’s blockee, I probed for details on the pair’s writing process: “We formulate our stories around people, building the world around the person over months. We talk about the details first — what they’re wearing, the Vogue Slims they smoke,” he says, gesturing to the cigarettes edging their way out of my jacket pocket.

On the topic of character building, I asked him about his fascination with morally grey characters. He confided that he’s drawn to writing morally ambiguous people because that’s how he views the world. “There’s a certain complexity to ‘baddies’ because it’s scary to find similarities with them and yourself… The stuff we make challenges people and their opinions — it makes them think again about who they are in the world… The world’s complex, and things that happen to people are sometimes more difficult to understand than you want to believe,” adding, “In the darkest recesses, light can be found if you’re willing to look.”

I asked Adam what other advice he had for budding filmmakers, and without missing a beat, he rhymed off: “Persistence, persistence, persistence” — some key advice he was given in his youth that has clearly stuck. Despite his lack of connections in the industry and being the first member of his family to branch out into a creative field, Adam persisted, using these barriers as a catalyst. He added that sometimes you must “forgo rationalisation in your mind when others around you are buying houses and cars — these economic hurdles break down so many creatives.”

I took a few things away from this interview. Firstly, don’t let being from Dromore (or any small town that warrants the label of culchie from Belfast natives) stop you from following your dreams. Secondly, trust your gut feeling (even if your business name sounds like a kinky drinking card game). Lastly, and on a more serious note:
“If you’ve got something to say, you just have to find a way to say it.”