Edwin S. Porter

Directing·Apr 21, 1870·Connellsville, Pennsylvania, USA

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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).

Film	Credit
Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter1982 · Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Prince and the Pauper1915 · Director	Director
Bella Donna1915 · Director	Director
Zaza1915 · Director	Director
The White Pearl1915 · Director	Director
SSold1915 · Director	Director
The Eternal City1915 · Director	Director
When We Were Twenty-One1915 · Director	Director
Niobe1915 · Director	Director
The Morals of Marcus1915 · Director	Director
The Crucible1914 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Such a Little Queen1914 · Director	Director
Tess of the Storm Country1914 · Director, Director of Photography	Director, Director of Photography
A Good Little Devil1914 · Director, Director of Photography	Director, Director of Photography
Hearts Adrift1914 · Director, Director of Photography	Director, Director of Photography
The Count of Monte Cristo1913 · Director, Director of Photography	Director, Director of Photography
His Neighbor's Wife1913 · Director	Director
In the Bishop's Carriage1913 · Director	Director
The Prisoner of Zenda1913 · Director	Director
The Price1911 · Director	Director
LLost Illusions1911 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
The Lighthouse by the Sea1911 · Director	Director
SSherlock Holmes, Jr.1911 · Director	Director
On the Brink1911 · Director	Director
A Heroine of '761911 · Director	Director
His Mother's Thanksgiving1910 · Director	Director
Sunshine Sue1910 · Producer	Producer
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland1910 · Director	Director
The Attack on the Mill1910 · Director	Director
RRussia, the Land of Oppression1910 · Director	Director
A Child of the Ghetto1910 · Producer	Producer
FFaust1909 · Director	Director
The House of Cards1909 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
OOn the Western Frontier1909 · Director	Director
The Cord of Life1909 · Producer	Producer
TThe Colored Stenographer1909 · Director	Director
MMiss Sherlock Holmes1908 · Director	Director
SShe1908 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Tale the Autumn Leaves Told1908 · Director	Director
Cupid’s Pranks1908 · Director of Photography	Director of Photography
A Suburbanite's Ingenious Alarm1908 · Director	Director
The Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus1907 · Director	Director
Laughing Gas1907 · Director	Director
College Chums1907 · Director	Director
The Trainer’s Daughter, or A Race for Love1907 · Director	Director
Jack the Kisser1907 · Director	Director
Rivals1907 · Director	Director
Cohen’s Fire Sale1907 · Director	Director