Edwin S. Porter Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography

Edwin S. Porter

Edwin S. Porter

Directing

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).

Filmography Movies

Production

Jack and the Beanstalk movie poster
MOVIE

Jack and the Beanstalk

6.0(0.0K)
Jack and the Beanstalk
Director of Photography
The Great Train Robbery movie poster
MOVIE

The Great Train Robbery

7.0(0.7K)
The Great Train Robbery
Director
The Great Train Robbery movie poster
MOVIE

The Great Train Robbery

7.0(0.7K)
The Great Train Robbery
Director of Photography
His Neighbor's Wife movie poster
MOVIE

His Neighbor's Wife

7.0(0.0K)
His Neighbor's Wife
Director
A Heroine of '76 movie poster
MOVIE

A Heroine of '76

9.0(0.0K)
A Heroine of '76
Director
The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog movie poster
MOVIE

The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog

5.2(0.0K)
The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog
Director
Life of an American Fireman movie poster
MOVIE

Life of an American Fireman

6.0(0.1K)
Life of an American Fireman
Director
Rescued from an Eagle's Nest movie poster
MOVIE

Rescued from an Eagle's Nest

5.5(0.0K)
Rescued from an Eagle's Nest
Cinematography
The Eternal City movie poster
MOVIE

The Eternal City

Not rated yet
The Eternal City
Director
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend movie poster
MOVIE

Dream of a Rarebit Fiend

6.3(0.1K)
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend
Director

Gallery

Edwin S. Porter portrait
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