![Edwin Stanton Porter Porter](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9XH1fRArYyizB4nahQ8tQfgyF8UsOoBcMRPCS9lrdbOeWtrnskXXGsu4i4WCvSjRsdwhyphenhyphenCADTX9NnVFbvkLs_cuwLQtvsTUkLg8TJidkhY29i8inI8JR2cQgM1JdqL1eqp7u8lrZyU3lG/s1600/175px-Edwin_S_Porter.jpg)
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Life of an American Fireman |
His past experience as touring
projectionist makes him aware what would please the crowd. Porter than began to produce trick and comedy
films for Edison that sparked his name in the industry as one of the most
influential filmmaker in the United States.
One of his technique inventions in film making is the dissolve
technique, gradual transitions from one image to another. This technique was embedded into his film
Life of an American Fireman where the technique helps his audiences to follow
complex outdoor movement. The Great
Train Robbery is another film where Porter uses cross cutting technique to show
simultaneous actions in different places.
The movie was assembled in twenty separate shots covering both indoors
and outdoors that gave a sweet twelve minutes remarkable movie watching
experience. The film was a huge
financial success and its mythic power has yet to dim.
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The Great Train Robbery |
Throughout his carrier with
Edison’s company (1899-1909), Porter portrayed side lighting, close-ups, and
changed shots within a scene technique in his movie called The Seven Ages
(1905). Porter had developed the modern
concept of continuity editing, and is often credited with discovering that the
basic unit of structure in film
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The Seven Ages |
was the shot rather than the scene which is
labeled by many as the basic unit on the stage.
Between 1903 and 1905 he successfully demonstrated most of the
techniques that were to become the basic modes of visual communication through
film.
He died in 1941 at the Hotel Taft
in New York at an aged 71. Although his
innovation in film technique is undeniable, he had never repeated or maintained
a consistent directorial style. To many of his industry friends, they regarded
Porter as artistic mechanic rather than dramatic artist due to his fond deals
with machine better than people.
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