ICE CREAM
Caught somewhere between friendship and love, the uncertainty of a situationship turns into a playful exploration of desire, distance and emotional whiplash
Directed by Erik He
words by Isabella Bazoni
In Ice Cream, attraction exists in a constant state of flux. YEONJUN moves through a relationship that never quite defines itself, shifting between intimacy and distance, desire and hesitation. Director Erik He builds this uncertainty around the contrasting sensations of ice cream itself: the slow, irresistible pull of something melting and the sudden shock of brain freeze. Rather than illustrating that metaphor literally, the film lets it run through its visual language, with choreography, performance and camera movement expressing the push and pull between its characters.
Working alongside movement director Shay Latukolan and cinematographer Simon Bendroft, He turns an emotionally familiar grey area into something physical, playful and cinematic, where closeness is always temporary and neither character ever quite knows where they stand.
Ice Cream takes the uncertainty of a situationship and turns it into something physical. Rather than relying on dialogue, emotion is expressed through movement, choreography, and visual metaphor. How did that approach develop, and what did your collaboration with movement director Shay Latukolan look like in bringing it to life?
I’m always more attracted toward finding a visual solution instead of a more conventional approach to storytelling, and here we’ve embraced dance and movement to capture the fleeting feeling of a situationship. Our movement director, Shay Latukolan, was monumental in making this happen, and it was great to work with him to come up with ideas to capture this feeling of ‘brain freeze’ or ‘melting’ as a way to add texture and depth to the film.
Your work often brings together performance, sculpture, and cinematic image-making. When you’re developing a project like this, are you thinking in terms of individual images first, or does everything begin with the emotional experience you want the audience to have?
Definitely individual images – I’m a big proponent of coming up with very visually striking moments and placing an emotional feeling to it afterward. I listen to the song over and over and try to find visuals that look beautiful for it. Almost every time I do this, there’s no logic to it, so it’s a bit tricky to pitch to clients, but fortunately with Ice Cream they were quite welcoming when it came to these bizarre and surreal ideas.
One example is the water steps; it just made sense to me that they had to dance with water flowing off the steps, and it’s only after we finished shooting that it became easy to connect it to the idea of melting/a temporary feeling.
“My approach to storytelling is focused much more on intuition and gut feeling than logic or a linear progression in a narrative.”
The film has a highly stylised visual language, yet every frame still feels grounded in the emotional tension between the characters. How did you approach developing the look of Ice Cream, and what conversations with your cinematographer Simon Bendroth helped define its visual identity?
Simon is one of my closest friends, and I’m so lucky to collaborate with him on a variety of projects. I think we really bring out the best in each other. He’s incredibly focused on finding the strongest way to highlight every detail within a frame, while I’m usually looking at it in the context of the film as a whole and where each moment fits into the bigger picture. That difference in perspective means we occasionally challenge each other, but it’s in that where we find magic. There’s a huge amount of trust between us, and I think it always leads to a stronger final product when we push each other.
Despite the scale of the production, the film never loses its sense of intimacy. How did you approach directing YEONJUN’s performance while balancing choreography, camera movement, and the demands of a large-scale music video shoot?
I think it’s very important not to think about scale when doing a production, whether it’s big or small. Of course it’s good to know what’s actually possible given the resources. Still, once the ball is rolling and the foundation is set, I believe the director needs to focus solely on executing their vision and to have other elements of the team to ‘bring them back down to reality’. When it comes to the actual actions, every production feels like a big piece of marble that you have to chisel away to create the final form, and I usually approach it with the same intimacy and detail regardless of its size. A part of it is also trust, and fortunately I was working with extremely talented and competent individuals who deserve just as much credit.
“Every production feels like a big piece of marble that you have to chisel away to create the final form.”
You’ve lived and worked across Asia, North America, and Europe, and your work draws from a wide range of visual influences. How has that shaped the way you approach storytelling, and what continues to inspire your visual language today?
Art that I find exciting always draws inspiration outside its respective medium. I try to approach all of my projects from angles that don’t necessarily exist in its context, which could sometimes feel strange or unconventional. As mentioned, my approach to storytelling is focused much more on intuition and gut feeling than logic or a linear progression in a narrative. At the moment, music is the biggest proponent of my inspiration, especially the works of Emahoy Gebru and Jeff Mills.
artist — YEONJUN
director — ERIK HE
creative director — SORA LEE
director of photography — SIMON BENDROFT
movement director — SHAY LATUKOLAN
production company — PARTIZAN ENTERTAINMENT & RANFILMS
production (Ranfilms) KR — SARA ZHAO
production PD — SEBIN PARK
executive producer (Partizan) — PEGAH FARAHMAND
line producer (Partizan) — NONI COUELL
dancers — AALIYAH LYNN BECK, ALICIA ANN BURGHARDT, ANNIE ELIZABETH ADAMS, COURTNEY RAE CAMPBELL, HEXXY HYEMIN SONG, ISABELLA ROSE MOORE
love interest — LARA CASQUERO FERNÁNDEZ
additional cast — JIŘÍ RENDL, MATTHEW DAVID, SEBASTIAN CIOCIRLAN, VERONIKA VACULIKOVÁ, VUK CELEBIC
dancer (agency) — KIM MINJI
Prague production — CLOSER
executive producer — MATOUŠ MARCINKO
line producer — VERONIKA JELŠÍKOVÁ
producer (Closer) — KRISTÝNA KAPOUNOVÁ
production manager — TOMÁŠ NEKVASIL
production coordinators (Closer) — KRYŠTOF ZELENKA, KAREL JIRÁŇ
production assistants (Closer) — ANDREA KAŠPAROVÁ, DIANA PAVIČOVÁ, JULIE SROKOVÁ
chaperones (Closer) — VERONIKA HRDLIČKOVÁ, HANYOUNG CHO
1st assistant director — DAVID JANČAR
2nd assistant director — MARKÉTA HANZALOVÁ
location managers — LUKÁŠ BUCMAN, ONDŘEJ NOVÁK
runners — MIKULÁŠ BRADÁČEK, DEBORAH MENŠLOVÁ, VIKTORIE VANĚRKOVÁ
extras coordinator — JAN ŠTRUNC
lock ups — MARTIN VELINGER
medic — ALEXIS ZÁRUBOVÁ
editor — JON ECHEVESTE (CHURCH)
colorist — DIDRIK BRÅTHEN (TMLS)
vfx — MORSECODE VFX STUDIO
sound design — DILLON CAHILL (THERAPY STUDIOS)
film-out — CINELAB
teaser / online editor — JAY BANEX (RANFILMS)
clean up / beauty — YIFAN LUO (RANFILMS)
creative coordinator — EBIHARA YUTO
photographer — ADRIAN KIM
BTS videographer / teaser director — CHO JIN YONG
1st assistant camera — ADAM ČEPELÁK
2nd assistant camera — DAVID FÍLA, ADAM PASECKÝ
camera operator — JIŘÍ ŠVORC
VTR — HOSHEEN AL RASHY
VTR assistant — MARTIN FRONTZ
DIT — MAREK LUSTYK DOČEKAL
gaffer — DAN KVARDA
best boy lights — DAVID KOLÁŘ
key grip — TOMÁŠ ROLLER
best boy grip — MARTIN POLÁK
technocrane — LADISLAV MUSIL
head operator — ŠIMON KŘÍŽ
electric quad — JAN ŽÁK
sound — ROMAN SEČKAŘ
art directors — KAMILA DUONG, JAMES WOOD
propmaster — JAN ŠRANKOTA
props standby — JAN MATOUŠEK, TOMÁŠ VESELÝ
SFX — MARTIN PRÝCA
stunt coordinator — DIMO LIPITKOVSKÝ
stunt driver — MIROSLAV KRÁL
stunt rigger — JIŘÍ ELIÁŠEK
male stand-in — ARSEN ANDREYEV
hair stylists — HONGMOON AHN, YEONSU KIM
makeup artists — RAN HEE PARK, KAKYUNG KIM
stylists — YE JIN KIM, MINJI IM
wardrobe stylist — TEREZA KOPECKÁ
wardrobe assistants — NATÁLIE NEPOVÍMOVÁ, MIA JADRNÁ, IVANNA KRAVCHUK
makeup (dancers) — ANNA IPATOVÁ, MARKÉTA NĚMCOVÁ
hair stylist (dancers) — ANNA BADUN
makeup assistant (dancers) — MICHAELA KUČEROVÁ
makeup (FE & extras) — SÁRA PAJMOVÁ
makeup assistant (FE & extras) — MONIKA SNOPKOVÁ
production trailer / VIP trailer — JARDA BOBUL
HMUP / wardrobe trailer (dancers) — JAN POČTA
HMUP / wardrobe trailer (FE & extras) — VÁCLAV CHALOUPKA
genny set & base — VLASTIMIL SMARDA
genny set — JAN ČESÁK
cherry picker — REWOSERVICE
base guys — MICHAL ŠKODA
catering — VERONIKA ŠUBRTOVÁ, MEGAHIT CATERING
honeywagon — PETR NEUBAUER
casting — STOPCASTING / MICHAELA SÍBOVÁ
extras agency — CINEMACASTING / VOJTA KODEŠ
casting dancers — KRISTÍNA TUKAN
dancer — MATOUŠ DAVID
storyboard artist — ANNA MARHOULOVÁ
camera rental — VANTAGE / JINDŘICH ČIPERA
light rental — LIGHTSERVICE
grip rental — LET’S ROLL GRIP
walkie rental — JAKUB KOULA / WALKIES PRAGUE
cars — MATYÁŠ HOMOLA
BIGHIT MUSIC
executive producers — SEONJEONG SHIN, SOOHEE CHO
chief producer — “HITMAN” BANG
producer — SLOW RABBIT
head of creative — BORAM KIM
creative director — SORA LEE
A&R — BORAM KIM, HAEIN GANG, SEAN LEE, JUNHA LEE
brand experience design — SEAYOL CHOI, YEEUN KIM, RANG CHOI, AARON SIM
visual creative — HYESOO LEE, YANHUA LI, YEJI HA
performance directing — JAEPY, KINGBEAR, KAIN, HOLLATOKA, HANZIO, YEONJUN
project management — JIYEON LEE