Head Above Water is the story of the “greatest rivalry in sporting history”. This feature-length comedy is the story of two renowned surfers whose rivalry reaches new heights when one of them rises to international stardom after fighting off a shark attack. In addition to creating the underscore for the film, Jayden composed the source music for the interview and fake TV spots of the plot. The diverse nature of these different approaches in terms of style and genre required a great deal from Jayden’s diverse musical sensibilities and talent. His compositions ranged from Hip Hop to epic Orchestral, late-night-talk-show themes to sports bumpers, even melodramatic soap opera. For the overall sound of the film, Lawrence created a laid-back “surfy” vibe with the use of warm pads, guitar, and contemporary “indie” elements such as vocals and electronics for the Australian beach community.
To set the tone in the opening sequence, director Connor Fairclough required a larger than life musical backdrop. He needed to create the sense that the competition between these two surfers was grandiose, even bordering on super heroic. In the same way the audience’s attention is captured in the first few seconds by music on the radio, a film gets a very curt amount of time to engage the viewer. Connor knew it had to make an impact immediately as it was the opportunity to give the viewer a glimpse of what lies ahead, introducing the premise of the film as well as the main characters, their fierce rivalry, and their journeys. He turned to Jayden to maximize the impact. The opening sequence itself is nearly three minutes of various documentary-style interviews intertwined with an enthusiastic radio broadcast. The music was the major factor in creating the necessary excitement. Jayden describes, “I approached the first cue as if I was writing music for a blockbuster trailer. It’s orchestral with deep hits, large string section, epic horns, and of course, a choir. The cliché of big drums and an aggressive cello ostinato were the big stars of this cue, creating momentum, drive, and anticipation. The use of a large ensemble such as an orchestra really helps to portray grandeur and the epic scale of the film. The cue is split into two halves, sandwiching a short commercial for one of the main character’s line of swimwear. This required its own piece of music. The film is a comedy and thus many of the scenes are tongue-in-cheek. In this case, the swimwear commercial is poking fun at celebrities who go on to release their own fashion or fragrance. Normally these celebrities are classy, sophisticated individuals. The character in this case [Ricky] is quite the opposite, evident by the way he delivers his lines as if struggling to read from an autocue. I wasn’t really given any direction for this, so I had complete freedom in how I wanted to approach this. I decided to play into the clichéd class and elegance of a typical fragrance ad for the start of the mock-commercial as the voice over announces ‘Passion… Competition… Australia…’ over black & white imagery. I did with this with an unobtrusive swelling pad, only to obtrusively ‘hit’ in with a hip-hop beat. This change in gears helps create some attitude to contrast with the ‘class and elegance’ preceding it, while also conveying ‘confidence’, another contrast with the fumbling demeanor of Ricky. I used a DJ Horn towards the end to add comic effect and appeal to an audience familiar with memes, making it even more difficult for the audience to take Ricky seriously.”
Lawrence is a modern composer who enjoys the solace of watching the film by himself and taking cues from the action on screen. In his home studio he is the sole creator and performer using software to manifest the presence of sonics spanning an orchestra to rock band. This streamlined approach not only allowed for the budget to be maintained but enabled the music to switch gears so quickly. When you’re the director of the film, this alleviates a great deal of pressure. Fairclough confirms, “Head Above Water was the biggest project I had personally undertaken, so I knew that I needed somebody who I could trust to handle such an important part of the production and was a good team player. This includes not only working to a high quality standard but being reliable under strict time restraints and pressures. As always, Jayden delivered the goods. His musical chops and picture sense take a film to the next level. I’ve worked with Jayden on a number of projects now and it’s always a highlight of the film-making process for me. It doesn’t matter what style of film; he nails the score every time. I’m sure I could simply dump a film in his lap and say ‘Here, score this’ and he would do it…and it would be perfect! I wouldn’t do that though because I’d miss out on being a part of his process, which is always insightful and often exposes elements of my film that I didn’t even know were there. As a filmmaker, you want professionals around you like Jayden Lawrence to inspire your creativity.”