The Sundance documentary film Skywalkers: A Love Story focuses on a Russian daredevil couple — Ivan Beerkus and Angela Nikolau — who, in an effort to save their career and relationship, takes a journey across the globe to Malaysia to climb the world’s tallest skyscraper at the time, called Merdeka, and perform a dangerous stunt on the spire.
Renato Borrayo Serrano
Director Jeff Zimbalist, who also wrote the film and co-edited it with Alannah Byrnes, called on cinematographer Renato Borrayo Serrano to shoot the vertigo-inducing doc, which plays like more of a heist film than a traditional documentary.
We reached out to Borrayo Serrano to talk about his process.
How early did you get involved in Skywalkers?
Director Jeff Zimbalist and [co-director] Maria Bukhonina had already established a relationship with Angela and Ivan. Things in Angela and Ivan’s relationship were becoming more serious, both in their careers and on a personal level. Jeff and Maria were looking for someone who could both develop an intimate relationship with them and shoot in a specific cinematographic style, bringing a sensibility to the depiction of the couple’s emotions. They saw my previous work and invited me to join as a DP. Back then, I was based in Moscow.
How did you work with Jeff Zimbalist? What direction were you given?
Jeff had a very specific and concrete idea of how he wanted the story to be told, using observation of real events as the main source of material and through close-ups, creating a strong emotional connection and access to the characters. A lot depended on following Angela and Ivan’s development over time and being able to show up and integrate organically into their lives while keeping the authenticity of the moment.
Reviewing the material, we would discuss a lot about the feelings of the characters and the development of the story — where we thought it was heading and what the possibilities were. We were clear that this was not just another film about extreme artists; it’s about human relationships, and the depth of their personalities needed to be depicted.
What about the color grade and colorist? What are some notes that you exchanged?
The director Jeff Zimbalist did the color. We talked about leaning into the cinematic grain, deep blacks, moderate saturation and yellow/green tints.
What did you end up shooting on and why?
It was clear from the beginning that we needed gear that would allow us to adapt to almost any unforeseen locations and situations without negatively interfering with the outcome of our characters’ lives and art. We also didn’t want to attract unnecessary attention. At the same time, we needed to achieve a cinematic feel and look.
We ended up working mainly with the Canon EOS C300 Mark II and Canon EOS C70 because those cameras are highly adaptable and can work with cinema lenses. But for the climb to Merdeka tower and many other heist-like and extreme situations, we used an incredibly wide variety of resources, spanning from GoPro action cameras to different sorts of drones, night vision cameras and remote mics and sound recording devices. Our goal was to maximize the storytelling resources on extreme, almost impossible-to-predict conditions.
What about the lighting?
We worked mainly with natural light, directing the sources of light when we could. Angela and Ivan are artists and have great visual sensibility, so they would understand and comprehensively react to certain proposals affecting the space they live in. They would quite naturally search for great scenery, even subconsciously.
However, we would try to minimize our intervention in space to favor authenticity. When you see the film, you can really feel how this worked on many levels, including the psychological one, to get visual access to emotions that were both authentic and cinematographic.
Are there some scenes that stick out as challenging?
There were moments of great tension between Angela and Ivan, and at some point, they had a fight. We were so immersed in their life and physically close to them that even for them it was hard to acknowledge that we weren’t choosing sides.
When you have that kind of access, in seconds you need to make the correct aesthetic decisions of framing and handle yourself correctly. An error can destroy the trust of the characters in the film and jeopardize the trust of the team. A life-changing decision can be taken only once; you either witness it with your camera authentically or not.
At moments, it became very hard — as it is in all human relationships — to navigate conflicts with neutrality. We felt great empathy for both, and they knew it. The main resource we had for navigating conflicts was the trust they had for our team. At the same time, we also needed to keep enough professional distance to be a system of safety checks and balances under extreme conditions, where an error could mean terrible consequences.
Renato Borrayo Serrano
Another big challenge was to plan how we were going to portray the ascent to Merdeka. It was a real race against time, and we were very invested in how we would show it in a cinematographic way and prepare the gear for a whole range of unpredictable situations.
This is where the collaboration with Ivan was crucial. We had a small team trespassing and monitoring the situation in real time, and that team had some close calls right along with Ivan and Angela. But we always stuck to a strict safety protocol that Jeff and Maria established with Ivan and Angela and their families. We always had to be thinking about safety and story and logistics all at once.
Looking back Skywalkers, would you have done anything differently?
I would have had more physical preparation. It was a mad challenge to keep up with Angela and Ivan on the roofs.
Finally, any tips for young cinematographers?
Be real, and think about the story and the relationships of your characters above everything. If you do that, then the right technical decisions will come. Communication with your director is essential.
