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

The Great Train Robbery

Film · 1903 · ★ 7.0

Life of an American Fireman

Film · 1903 · ★ 6.0

Electrocuting an Elephant

Film · 1903 · ★ 2.7

Dream of a Rarebit Fiend

Film · 1906 · ★ 6.3

What Happened on Twenty-Third Street, New York City

Film · 1901 · ★ 5.3

The Gay Shoe Clerk

Film · 1903 · ★ 5.5

Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show

Film · 1902 · ★ 5.5

Rescued from an Eagle's Nest

Film · 1908 · ★ 5.5

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Film · 1903 · ★ 4.9

The 'Teddy' Bears

Film · 1907 · ★ 5.6

Jack and the Beanstalk

Film · 1902 · ★ 6.0

Pan-American Exposition by Night

Film · 1901 · ★ 5.9

Filmography

• 1982 Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter · Self
• 1915 The Prince and the Pauper · Director
• 1915 Bella Donna · Director
• 1915 Zaza · Director
• 1915 The White Pearl · Director
• 1915 Sold · Director
• 1915 The Eternal City · Director
• 1915 When We Were Twenty-One · Director
• 1915 Niobe · Director
• 1915 The Morals of Marcus · Director
• 1914 The Crucible · Director, Writer
• 1914 Such a Little Queen · Director
• 1914 Tess of the Storm Country · Director, Cinematography
• 1914 A Good Little Devil · Director, Cinematography
• 1914 Hearts Adrift · Director, Cinematography
• 1913 The Count of Monte Cristo · Director, Cinematography
• 1913 His Neighbor's Wife · Director
• 1913 In the Bishop's Carriage · Director
• 1913 The Prisoner of Zenda · Director
• 1911 The Price · Director
• 1911 Lost Illusions · Director, Writer
• 1911 The Lighthouse by the Sea · Director
• 1911 Sherlock Holmes, Jr. · Director
• 1911 On the Brink · Director
• 1911 A Heroine of '76 · Director
• 1910 His Mother's Thanksgiving · Director
• 1910 Sunshine Sue · Producer
• 1910 Russia, the Land of Oppression · Director
• 1909 On the Western Frontier · Director
• 1909 The Colored Stenographer · Director
• 1908 Miss Sherlock Holmes · Director
• 1908 She · Director, Writer
• 1908 The Gentleman Burglar · Camera Operator
• 1908 Nero and the Burning of Rome · Cinematography
• 1908 Tale the Autumn Leaves Told · Director
• 1908 A Country Girl's Seminary Life and Experiences · Camera Operator
• 1908 Cupid’s Pranks · Cinematography
• 1908 Fireside Reminiscences · Camera Operator
• 1908 A Suburbanite's Ingenious Alarm · Director
• 1908 Rescued from an Eagle's Nest · Cinematography
• 1907 The Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus · Director
• 1907 Laughing Gas · Director
• 1907 College Chums · Director
• 1907 The Trainer’s Daughter, or A Race for Love · Director
• 1907 Jack the Kisser · Director
• 1907 Rivals · Director
• 1907 Cohen’s Fire Sale · Director
• 1907 The 'Teddy' Bears · Director
• 1907 Poor John · Director
• 1906 Getting Evidence · Director, Cinematography
• 1906 Kathleen Mavourneen · Camera Operator
• 1906 How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game · Cinematography, Director
• 1906 Waiting at the Church · Director
• 1906 The Life of an American Cowboy · Director
• 1906 Life of a Cowboy · Director
• 1906 The Terrible Kids · Camera Operator
• 1906 Three American Beauties · Director, Cinematography
• 1906 A Winter Straw Ride · Director, Cinematography
• 1906 Dream of a Rarebit Fiend · Director
• 1905 The Night Before Christmas · Director, Cinematography
• 1905 The Life of an American Policeman · Director
• 1905 Desperate Encounter Between Burglar and Police · Camera Operator
• 1905 The Train Wreckers · Director
• 1905 The Miller’s Daughter · Director
• 1905 The Watermelon Patch · Director
• 1905 The White Caps · Director
• 1905 The Little Train Robbery · Director
• 1905 The Boarding School Girls · Director
• 1905 Scenes and Incidents, Russo-Japanese Peace Conference, Portsmouth, N. H. · Director
• 1905 Empire State Express, the Second, Taking Water on the Fly · Camera Operator
• 1905 The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog · Director
• 1905 The Burglar's Slide for Life · Camera Operator
• 1905 I.B. Dam and the Whole Dam Family · Director
• 1905 On a Good Old 5¢ Trolley Ride · Camera Operator
• 1905 Coney Island at Night · Director
• 1905 How Jones Lost His Roll · Director, Cinematography
• 1905 The Seven Ages · Director
• 1905 The Kleptomaniac · Director
• 1904 The Strenuous Life; or, Anti-Race Suicide · Director
• 1904 Scarecrow Pump · Director