Edwin S. Porter effect on the film industry will be felt for years to come. He is best known for the film The Great Train Robbery. In this film Porter introduced many of the common elements present in today’s cinema. This twelve minute film broken down over ten different scenes set a new standard in film length for the industry. Most critics agree,” The Great Train Robbery, with its core elements of crime, pursuit, and retribution, established the "western" as a film genre in American cinema” (Edwin S. Porter). Two of his other most famous films include, Execution of Czolgosz which was a documentary on the assassination of president McKinley, and The Life Of An American Fireman which was the first film ever use to footage of an actual fire. Some of the other common film elements introduced by Porter include, close ups of an actor’s faces, camera movement, and shooting of films on the actual locations of the story in the film. After make numerous films in the early 1900’s Porter began to turn his attention to the making of production equipment. He started up a company known as Precision Machine Corporation. Although his company started out extremely successful, his company went down with the stock market crash of 1929 and never recovered. Edwin Porter was a pioneer in the film industry whose contributions will never be forgotten.
D.W. Griffith is considered by many to be the most influential filmmaker of the twenty first century. Griffith gained most of his notoriety for the controversial film Birth of a Nation. Many film experts believe this particular film was,”the most important film in the development of cinema as an art” (D.W. Griffith). This film was the first major media source to, in an openly racists society, to have an openly anti African American message. The film included such things a pro Klu Klux Klan stance, an open endorsement of slavery. This film is widely known as the,” the meanest vilification of the Negro race" (Dirks 1). Another one of Griffith’s most notable films is The Drive for Life. This film introduces the common practice today of cutting back and forth between two separate scenes that are taking place at one time. This today is known as the concept of parallel editing. Other important films by Griffith include Hearts of a World, a story about the tragedies of world war one, and Orphans of a Storm, a recreation of the French Revolution. Griffith is also accredited with introducing many other universal practices of film today. Such things include, “use of still shot, use of subtitles, total screen close ups, night photography, and battle scenes that featured hundreds of extras” (Birth Of A Nation). D.W. Griffith’s fame in the film industry began to fade after the inception of non-silent films in the depression era. Such failure films as Broken Blossoms, Orphans of the Storm and Abraham Lincoln marked the end of Griffith’s filmmaking. Nevertheless, Griffith made an impact on the film industry like few others have ever done before.
Edwin Porter and D.W. Griffith set many of the common standards for modern day film practices. Their discoveries helped shaped many of the modern films which have grossed many millions of dollars. Many of the common camera shot, edits, and other aspects of today’s film were present back in the early 1900’s thanks to the ideas and actions of Griffith and Porter. The film industry will never be the same thanks to the inventions and ideas of Edwin Porter and D.W. Griffith.
Works Cited
Birth Of A Nation. 1 September 2007
"D.W. Griffith." 2007. Who2? 1 September 2007 http://who2.com/ask/dwgriffith.html.
Dirks, Tim. "Birth Of A Nation (1915)." 1996. Filmsite. 1 September 2007
http://www.filmsite.org/birt.html.
"Edwin S. Porter." 2006. Bookrags. 31 August 2007
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