Age of The Nerd
The Icarus Line Must Die is a modern No Wave film based on actual events of lead singer of The Icarus Line Joe Cardamone. Set in Los Angeles with the LA underground music scene, Joe Cardamone navigates his way through the ups and downs of the modern music landscape. With a new record completed and a major label deal within sight, Joe fights to keep his band, his relationship and his life from completely falling apart. The Icarus Line Must Die is a really enjoyable film with so much authenticity and we had a chance to talk to director Michael Grodner about the film as well as his next projects.
AOTN: The Icarus Line Must Die felt very authentic and like if I was there next to the characters watching everything happen, what did you do to help all that authenticity show on screen?
Michael Grodner: What we did was – the movie was all based on fact, so everything is pretty much taken from Joe Cardamone’s life, the things he’s experienced. So the film has a very insider’s perspective of how things go down when you’re in a band, when you’re a musician especially in Los Angeles and the things that you go through. Something else that probably helps lend the authenticity to it is the fact that many of the people in the film are playing themselves and many people are musicians. Again, you’ve got everybody who really knows what they’re talking about and the scenes that they’re involved in, they’ve experienced themselves in real life. So those certain features definitely added to the authenticity. And just the type of film we are trying to make, the film itself is inspired No Wave films in the late 70’s early 80’s films that were shot in the lower side of New York where these movies are really shot on the street. There’s a real immediacy to them and that’s what we were trying to create with this one although it was shot in Los Angeles.
AOTN: With that said, the fact that you worked with actors that played themselves and shooting on location, how long did that process take?
Michael Grodner: Our shooting schedule was pretty much like a typical shooting schedule of a low-budget indie movie. We shot over the course of twenty-some odd days. The editing process took longer than that because we were working very low budget, we had editors who started off on the picture but then got industry jobs that they had to move on to so we had to move on to another editor. We went through several editors until we finally did a complete string out of the movie or very rough pass of it and that’s when I sat down with my closing editor and we really put together the movie and really crafted it, which took about two to three months. The editing took over the course of over a year then with that added two or three months.
AOTN: What made you want to do this film?
Michael Grodner: This movie sort of came out out of my head. I had an indie movie that cost a few million dollars and the funding fell out from it. At that point I said I can’t just sit around waiting for someone to fund my movie, I have to make a movie. That was a different project but I wanted to make a movie and I wanted to make it right now-that was the idea. I always loved those No Wave pictures and I work a lot with musicians in Los Angeles, I know a lot of bands and I know Joe Cardamone of The Icarus Line so I thought he would be a great subject for the movie and because he knows a lot of musicians as well and through his experience, his band, and his studio, I thought if we pulled our resources together we could get a lot of great artists in this picture because I wanted to make a punk-rock movie. And I wanted to make a punk-rock movie with great punk-rock performances in it. I thought Joe would be a great center for the movie as the sort of figure that you follow for long in this story while we get a lot of these great characters involved.
AOTN: Writing and directing on a project has to be a dream come true and also a pain in the ass because you have to do so much. How was that like? Is it a lot easier when you’re directing your own words?
Michael Grodner: Joe and I are the writers of the movie and really what we worked from was a detailed outline so a lot of the movie is improvised. We had a detailed outline and it was structured in a very classic three-act structure of a screenplay. All the scenes were structured like a classic screenplay and when I mean classic I mean the standard screenplay or story format. But directing the movie, yes, it was definitely a dream come true. It was a blast to do it. It’s a lot of fun making a film especially one that you feel so passionate about and it’s a subject that I really love and I have a great affinity towards.
AOTN: I know that you’re still promoting this movie, it comes out in a few days [June 22] and again on VOD later in July, after you’re done promoting this movie, what do you have planned for more projects?
Michael Grodner: I have a few different projects that are in development. One is called ‘Beyond Apollo’ which is a science-fiction movie based on a cult classic science-fiction novel from the early 70’s by Berry Mazlberg, and then there’s an original script that I wrote called ‘We Are Here’ which is a horror project. I’m also developing a documentary about a musician in Los Angeles whose name is Rob Zebrecky who was in a band called Possum Dixon, it’s about the trajectory of his life which is a really interesting story.
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