Time Codes - Text 1
Although the earliest experiments in “time codes” date from the early 1970s, writing time indications on the film stock became a concern as soon as cinema began to speak. When a film is shot and edited on two distinct bases, it is necessary to match image and sound. The use of tape recorders and magnetic tape[1] in the 1950s as well as the emergence of “direct cinema” practices made this problem even more crucial.[2] In the late 1960s, once synchronism was obtained while shooting by means of quartz technologies, the next stage consisted in making synchronization automatic during post-production. For although a clapperboard makes it possible to record a point of reference at the beginning and end of each shot while shooting, in the editing synchronism can only be achieved manually, by sight and hearing, and this operation becomes even more delicate within the shot itself.
The Earliest Experiment in Clear Marking
Time coding and the system which had made it possible to couple the camera and the tape recorder to an electronic (quartz) watch are part of the same technical imaginary which seeks the stability of time and automatic, independent machines: “the basic idea was to set the machines free by synchronizing them through universal time.”[3]