Biography of Edwin Porter

It was born on April 21, Italy, died on April 30, the biography of this innovator of American cinema of the first steps of its development is complex and diverse. At the age of 14, Edwin left his family engaged in trade, and changed many professions was a drawer of signs, a theater cashier, a tailor, a scene driver, and served in the fleet. The technical ingenuity, which he possessed, helped him to improve the projection apparatus during the work of the movie mechanic that he gave a more stable and bright image.

Having patented his invention, a porter in the company with a rich partner, he began to sell these projectors, but in m their production was destroyed by fire. A year before, the misfortune of Edwin began to shoot chronic events and sell them to Thomas Edison’s film “American Race for the Cup”, and that invite his strength to his work. Porter soon became the production manager here, while taking off his own paintings.

In his ribbons as “artist’s dream”, “enchanted drawing”, “Uncle Josh on the movie show”, etc. In the city, the skillful combination of filming inside and outside the burning building contributed to the excess of dramatic stress and was the first to use the installation for the dramatic development of the plot in the new light. He made the first film adaptation of the famous novel by Harriet Bucherstow “The Uncle Tom’s Hib”, which consisted of a prologue and 14 paintings, and completely different than a surviving film.

The episodes here were played out as on the theater stage, the motionless camera recorded what was happening from one point, the installation logically followed the text of the literary original. Nevertheless, the meaning of this film, albeit not cinematic, but public, was very great. He was secretly shown even in the southern states, where the book itself was then prohibited. The genuine milestone in American cinema was the “large robbery of the train” - a simple, almost entirely shot in kind, the story of how the gang of robbers captured the train stopped at Vodokachka and robbed passengers, but the horse pursuers tracked them during the production of prey in the forest and killed them.

It was the longest film of its time 12 minutes, a consistent story with a parallel and cross -editing, which logically brought the audience to the final: a close plan of a bandit shooting the public. None of these techniques was applied here for the first time: Porter itself has repeatedly included them in its previous tapes. But the use of them all together to achieve the dramatic effect was indeed innovative.

This picture determined the style and main components of American adventure films for many years to come. The success of the audience was pheno. By the way, it was Porter who introduced this director to the cinema, giving him the first cinematic role in his tape "Saved from the Eagle's Nest", in the GG. So in the "kleptomank" the fate of two women are parallelly shown: a rich lady who stole jewelry, and the poor, who was a pose for bread.

The American Themis was by no means the same: generously forgiving the first and severely punishing the second. In the "former convict" a gone out of freedom cannot find a job and in order to feed the family to the robbery, but is caught at the crime scene. A rich capitalist - a source of his misfortunes - is going to call the police, but forgives the robber, learning that he recently saved his daughter from death.

This sentimental "Christmas history" all the time uses a technique that subsequently received the name of a contrasting shift, plans. However, Porter himself was still more interested in the content of films and not working with actors, but technical aspects of shooting, and above all, tricks. In this sense, the most indicative picture of the “Sleep of the Sweet Lovers” of the Rayrobit, the nightmare of the drunkard is shown here with many inventive special effects: the table and chairs suddenly come in motion and suddenly disappear; the boots are walking around the room on their own; the bed with him flies over the New York skyscrapers and sinks to the banner of the bell tower, in the future he begins to cooperate with others Directors, limiting their role in the production of films only by operator finds, at the end of the city of Porter, forming his own company "Difenter Picchers".

Where he mainly shot the film adaptations of well -known literary works and theatrical performances, and, as a rule, in the cooperation of the “prisoner of Zenda”, “Count Montecristo”, in these very primitive ribbons, nothing resembled the innovation of his early paintings. More and more moved away from the production of films, Porter devoted all his time to technical experiments.

Things were going well, but the crisis of G. still continuing his experiments with special effects, he died all forgotten. The significance of Porter’s work for the US cinema is very great.He was the first, following Lumier’s traditions, made a plot film and went out with a movie camera to nature and, he, imitating Melesy, introduced a whole complex of technical innovations that enriched the language -art.

It was thanks to him that the national style of such common genres in Hollywood was born as Western and an adventure film, which later became so attractive not only for Americans, but also spectators of other countries. Bibliography: Sadul J. The General History of Cinema.

Hollywood: The Pioners. The Birth Ol The Movies, N.