Sound Editing Assignment 1 (Task 1)

Reasons for sound recording: 

To compress and summarise a sound recording to fit a specific space

The opening to Game Of thrones is 1 minute and 46 seconds long. However, the full song was composed to be 4 minutes and 15 seconds long. This means that only a quarter of the full song is in use. To make this opening as catchy as possible, they would have to select the best part of the song and leave the rest. This would impact the audience by having the catchiest part of the song. This would also mean the audience wouldn't have to sit through a 4 minute intro and get bored of what is on screen. By choosing the segment with the highest rhythm and the overall climax of the song, it allows the audience to be hooked from the get go with the score that has now been cherished and evaluated as one of the best TV intros of all time.
Another famous example would be the Friends intro of the hit TV sitcom. The intro is just a 44 second snippet of the 3 minute song "I'll be there for you" which has been cut down to fit a space of 45 seconds in order to match up with the quick snappy compilation of clips taken from the show itself. This again, has since become a staple for TV show intros and is again, fast paced entertaining for audiences.
To eliminate flawed, superfluous, repetitive, uninteresting, irrelevant material from the clip

This clip is raw footage of an interview which is 34 minutes long. For TV/Radio  purposes the studio would cut down this interview to fit a certain time frame when airing it. This means they would have to cut out any unnecessary footage in post production. An example would be the idle conversation at the beginning the clip. At this point the interview hadn't started and was just idle small talk. As it serves nothing for actual interview purposes, it would be cut out to shorten the whole interview. As well as this the clip of his mic being put on would be cut out as it is a part of the set up and contributes nothing to the interview itself. This is to keep an audience interests maintained as all the uninteresting/boring parts would be cut out.
To enable recorded speech to remain legal
This is to deter from copyright infringement and invasion of privacy. This is used to check any background audio that wasn't permitted to use or may be illegal. This may include speech from strangers picked up in the background. While this interferes with whats happening on screen, it is also illegal to record someones conversation without their full permission otherwise legal action can be pursued unless the audio is deleted or cut out. Another example would be background music picked up at a location. If the rights for the certain song is not obtained then the creator/artist may also pursue legal action as they do not have the rights to the property. These illegal uses of audio recordings can lead to lawsuits or re-shoots which may cost a studio a lot of money so extra precautions are taken to edit our or prevent illegal speech to be recorded.
To ensure any inappropriate or indecent language is edited out

This when language such as profanity is edited out in post production to ensure that the film stays appropriate for its target audience. This includes anything offensive or vulgar said accidentally on set or in the background. In modern day film, it is the context, strength and tone of those words being said rather than the word itself that is taken into account. This language may be cut out or censored based to make sure it doesn't exceed the audiences expectation at any age rating. However censorship wont be necessary for post watershed ours as that is when the more adult programs are aired as kids are usually in bed so they wont be exposed to such profanities. The example I've chosen is the Adult Swim show "Robot Chicken". Despite its colorful animation, their is a lot of inappropriate language present as the show is a satire depiction of pop culture as a whole. Despite their being a lot of profanity, it remains to have an age rating of 15 as the bad words are censored using bleep sound effects. However offensive language may still be used in order to create comedy. This clip in particular focuses on overweight fictional characters where the word "fat" is used to insult the characters. To an audience this could be seen as offensive as it could be shown as fat shaming. This wouldn't be censored out as it is not direct profanity and may only offend a handful of people.
To change the chronological or logical audio of a series of sounds or recorded speech
The most notable example of this would be in film trailers where both visuals and audio would be switched around and compressed in order to confuse an audience by making the narrative different or unclear. It is used to attract and audience to a film by leaving them with mysteries so they come and watch the finished product in order to gain clarity. An example  would be the Kingsman 2 trailer which shows multiple action sequences in different orders. During this the song being played is cut and reordered so that upbeat parts of the song match the fast pace action of the trailer. Lyrics of the song may be faded out to shift the focus onto the dialogue of the characters.
To create impact by adding sound effects or music between pieces of dialogue
Sound effects are artificially created and added into films to emphasise or express and action, mood or feeling. They would be synchronized to certain actions. They are also used to create ambiance in order to create an atmosphere or to build anticipation.Sound effects are recorded as Foley sounds or are created using digital software. These sound can be played close together in order to create realism as sounds are usually concurrent in real life. Sound also may be layered in order to create new sounds entirely. This practice is most common in Sci-fi films to express new environments or creatures to entice an audience. A common use of sound effects to create atmosphere would be noticeably horror films.  On the other hand, music can be added in order to display the emotion of a film or to enhance it from a story telling perspective. The strongest form of music in film is that used to create an atmosphere by matching the tone of the music to the mood of the film. This means that the music audio would match what is happening on scene. Music can also be matched geographically with a film in order to establish a location. For example a beach scene would have happy music to match the bright colors and tone on screen. Where as a haunted mansion would have very eerie and ominous audio played.

A very notable example of contrapuntal audio concerning the use of music in film is this scene from Reservoir Dogs. The music is important as it contradicts the actions on screen where a cop is tortured. An important part of this scene is when Mr Blonde leaves the warehouse and the music fades out when the door shuts. When he re-enters the scene seconds later the music makes a sudden return. This is used to throw the audience back into the scene so suddenly.