Edwin S. Porter

Personal Info

Known For Director

Gender Male

Birthday 1870-04-21

Deathday 1941-04-30 (71 years old)

Place of Birth Connellsville, Pennsylvania, USA

Also Known As Edwin Stratton Porter, Ed Porter, Edward Porter, 에드윈 S. 포터, 에드윈 포터

Edwin S. Porter

Biography

Edwin Stanton Porter was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Influenced by both the "Brighton school" and the story films of Georges Méliès, Porter went on to make important shorts such as Life of an American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery (1903). In them, he helped to develop the modern concept of continuity editing, paving the way for D.W. Griffith who would expand on Porter's discovery that the unit of film structure was the shot rather than the scene. Porter, in an attempt to resist the new industrial system born out of the popularity of nickelodeons, left Edison in 1909 to form his own production company which he eventually sold in 1912. Porter remains an enigmatic figure in motion picture history. Though his significance as director of The Great Train Robbery and other innovative early films is undeniable, he rarely repeated an innovation after he had used it successfully, never developed a consistent directorial style, and in later years never protested when others rediscovered his techniques and claimed them as their own. He was a modest, quiet, cautious man who felt uncomfortable working with the famous stars he directed starting in 1912. He has directed four films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Life of an American Fireman (1903), The Great Train Robbery (1903), Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906) and Tess of the Storm Country (1914).

Known For

Director

1915
The Eternal City

as Director

1915
Zaza

as Director

1915
Sold

as Director

1915
1915
The White Pearl

as Director

1915
Bella Donna

as Director

1915
Niobe

as Director

1915
1914
1914
Hearts Adrift

as Director

1914
1914
The Crucible

as Director

1913
1913
1913
1911
A Heroine of '76

as Director

1911
1911
Lost Illusions

as Director

1911
On the Brink

as Director

1911
The Price

as Director

1910
1909
1909
Faust

as Director

1909
1908
1908
1908
1908
Cupid’s Pranks

as Director

1907
The 'Teddy' Bears

as Director

1907
The Rivals

as Director

1907
College Chums

as Director

1907
1907
Laughing Gas

as Director

1907
Jack the Kisser

as Director

1907
Poor John

as Director

1906
1906
1906
1906
1906
The Terrible Kids

as Director

1906
Getting Evidence

as Director

1906
1906
1905
1905
1905
1905
The Seven Ages

as Director

1905
The Kleptomaniac

as Director

1905
The Train Wreckers

as Director

1905
1905
1905
The White Caps

as Director

1904
The Ex-Convict

as Director

1904
Maniac Chase

as Director

1904
European Rest Cure

as Director

1904
1904
Scarecrow Pump

as Director

1904
Parsifal

as Director

1904
Dog Factory

as Director

1904
Animated Painting

as Director

1904
Japanese Acrobats

as Director

1903
1903
1903
The Gay Shoe Clerk

as Director

1903
Uncle Tom's Cabin

as Director

1903
The Extra Turn

as Director

1903
1903
1903
1902
1902
1902
1902
1902
1902
Rock of Ages

as Director

1902
1902
1901
1901
1901
1901
1901
1901
1901
Day at the Circus

as Director

1900
1900
A Dull Razor

as Director

1900
1900
1900
The Magician

as Director

1900
1900
An Artist's Dream

as Director

1900
The Mystic Swing

as Director

1900
The Kiss

as Director

Camera

1914
A Good Little Devil

as Director of Photography

1914
Hearts Adrift

as Director of Photography

1914
Tess of the Storm Country

as Director of Photography

1913
The Count of Monte Cristo

as Director of Photography

1908
Cupid’s Pranks

as Director of Photography

1906
How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game

as Director of Photography

1906
Getting Evidence

as Director of Photography

1906
A Winter Straw Ride

as Director of Photography

1906
Three American Beauties

as Director of Photography

1905
How Jones Lost His Roll

as Director of Photography

1905
The Night Before Christmas

as Director of Photography

1905
1904
Parsifal

as Director of Photography

1904
1903
The Great Train Robbery

as Director of Photography

1903
The Gay Shoe Clerk

as Director of Photography

1903
What Happened in the Tunnel

as Director of Photography

1903
Electrocuting an Elephant

as Director of Photography

1902
Jack and the Beanstalk

as Director of Photography

1901
Esquimaux Game of Snap-the-Whip

as Director of Photography

1901
Circular Panorama of Electric Tower

as Director of Photography

1901
Terrible Teddy, the Grizzly King

as Director of Photography

Producer

1910
Sunshine Sue

as Producer

1909
Hansel and Gretel

as Producer

1909
The Cord of Life

as Producer

1906
1903

Writer

1914
The Crucible

as Writer

1911
Lost Illusions

as Writer

1908
The Gentleman Burglar

as Scenario Writer

Crew

1908
1901

Actor

1982
Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter

as Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Editor