‘Scream VI’ cinematographer explains how a single shot serves as character development

This article contains spoilers for Scream VI.

Circumstances have forced Scream queens Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) to resort to violence and ultimate badassery on more occasions than they can count.

One will immediately rush to acknowledge and applaud the brilliant storylines and exemplary performances involving both characters, but certain aspects remain unexplored, and here’s when cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz comes into the picture and explains the techniques he adopted to capture Sam’s epic transition from a 20-something college girl to a Ghostface hunter.

He opened up about one shot from Scream VI, in particular, where Sam holds a gun towards Quinn Bailey (revealed to be the Ghostface). A close-up of her face and expression that Jutkiewicz employs here captures Sam’s transformation into a character in her own right who’s capable of making her own decisions and goes to a considerable extent to wipe off those she deems as her enemy.

 In an interview with Screenrant, Jutkiewicz elaborates on the subject,

“But that being said, because Sam is our heroine in the film, we definitely pay special attention to her hero moments. One that comes to mind is when she is up on the balcony, at the theater, and she’s holding Quinn at gunpoint. I had this image in my mind of her being lit by the projector on one side of her face. So you could kind of see the image of what’s being projected on the screen hitting her and almost making her one with the movie in a way and one with the franchise. There’s something kind of interesting and powerful and meta about that. She’s coming into her own in this moment, and so it’s little things like that. We definitely looked for ways to give her those hero moments.”

Everyone remembers this and many other shots where Jukiewicz showcases his brilliance, leaving many to wonder whether this reflects Sam’s transformation into the ultimate final girl or is an implication of her treading a similar path as that of her biological father, Billy Loomis. Especially because Sam’s shared personality traits with her serial killer father have been occasionally implied.

As of now, we don’t know anything but one thing’s for sure, a keen deliberation on the cinematographic skills will certainly create spaces for further interpretation.

Scream VI is available on Paramount Plus and on-demand digital platforms.