From the Single System to the Double System - Text 3
The Double System, a Strategic Choice
The abandonment of the single system is explained by reasons both practical and strategic. The system invented by Beauviala was technically complex and poorly suited to the instantaneous loading of the camera’s magazine. Moreover, it was never put into production, either by Éclair or later by Aaton. In addition, during the same period the problem was solved by video technology, which simplified the process, as uninterrupted movement became the key principle. In the 1970s, large companies (Sony, JVC, Philips, etc.) marketed devices equipped with single system analogue video, which was deemed more satisfactory by American television networks, which gradually abandoned film stock for shooting news reporting.[4]
Cinematic Praxis
Just as the rejection of the single system was, for Aaton, a strategic choice, a consequence of the technological evolution and commercial possibilities foreseen by the company, espousing the double system was greatly influenced by real thinking about cinema’s praxis, a praxis conveyed as much by discourses around the conception of the company’s devices as by the devices themselves. The two series of interviews that Beauviala granted to Cahiers du cinéma in 1978 and 1987 contributed to placing his conception at the heart of Aaton’s innovation process. This conception was based on a historic moment, the emergence of direct cinema in the early 1960s. At that time, synchronism was a major aesthetic and social issue for filmmakers, because it involved both being synchronous with an era by recording life and speech as they unfolded and inventing new forms with a direct connection to reality.
Beauviala, by opposing the hegemony of the point of view and point of hearing imposed by the single system, to which were associated the uses of video in the case of television reporting in particular, developed a singular conception of cinematic creativity out of the double and “clear marking” system. For Beauviala, the independence of image and sound recording machines was part of an ethical concern: to free oneself from the everyday subjection of hearing to sight by making them completely independent. In this way, Beauviala was not only advocating increased freedom – as camera operators and sound recordists could move about more easily during the film shoot[5] – but also more creative possibilities of significance. Thus with the double system and the use of time coding, the founder of Aaton aspired, beginning in 1978 and in a forward-looking manner, to make the film production chain more flexible by facilitating the expressivity of gestures and by providing the editor, for example, with the possibility of assembling images and sounds in a non-synchronous manner. These promises would be fulfilled by virtual editing in the 1990s.