Director's Q and A
Why did you decide to make a trilogy?
It all seems accidental in retrospect. We made the original Patterns because we had some spare time on our hands and had access to equipment. I hadn’t made a film since Why the Anderson Children Didn’t Come to Dinner—and I was going mad working on a feature script. I had to make something! The first Patterns had success at festivals and on TV; and making another film in the same fashion seemed like the logical thing to do. So we did. I remember making some joke about shooting two sequels at a time, George Lucas-style. And then we did. We had our dates set and our location locked before there were even scripts. In true Patterns fashion (I do not usually work this way), I hammered out the script until the first day of shooting.
What is the meaning behind the trilogy?
I prefer not to to work in terms of meaning. That’s not to say there is no meaning behind the films, but meaning certainly was not the impetus behind my making them. The Patterns Trilogy comprises, for me, three highly self-conscious films—self-conscious in terms of style, genre, narrative structure and this so-called meaning. My favourite films are those that manipulate an audience with ease. I have tried to make this manipulation front-and-centre and unashamed. I have tried to make the audience instrumental in their own manipulation. This approach, I think, applies more to the first two Patterns. Patterns 3 is a total release for me—the promise of meaning and in its place some frolicsome song and dance.
What about Patterns 4? Or 5? Or 6?
We have joked about these. I was thinking that Patterns 4 and 5 could be prequels. Patterns 4 could feature a young Pauline learning the “I before E” rule for the first time and taking it to heart. Patterns 5 could be the story of young Michael, learning tea etiquette from his Grammy. Then Patterns 6 could be an unashamed romantic comedy, featuring the ups and downs of Pauline and Michael’s relationship. Patterns 7 could start when Pauline’s bimbo roommate comes home wondering where Pauline has gone off to and why the apartment is full of paper airplanes. Patterns 8 could show the ultimate fate of Pauline and Michael—in 3D. Really, the possibilities are endless. While I do like the idea of building up a story chapter by chapter (and not as a whole that is then broken down into chapters), it would only be healthy at this point to move on and leave Patterns alone.