Time Codes - Text 2
Jean-Pierre Beauviala’s research into inscribing the time on film stock were in fact carried out at the same time as he developed the servo-control circuit for the motor of the Éclair 16 (1968),[4] using the same Arriflex 16 mm camera. Between 1967 and 1970, on his own time, he carried out tests in inscribing the time on film stock using electromagnetic diodes and a seven-segment display system, prefiguring the process he called the “system for displaying numbers by combining character strokes” for which he filed a patent in 1977.[5] But it was not until another adapted 16 mm camera, the Aaton LTR 16,[6] and the industrialization of the microprocessors used right from the very first tests, that the idea of “clear marking” took form, meaning a system which made it possible to display the time in Arabic numerals on the edge of the film stock.