Who is Edwin S. Porter from Flashback: A Brief History of Film and what is their importance?

Edwin S. Porter was a jack-of-all-trades-cameraman, who worked in Thomas Edison's studio. During this time period, this also meant that he was the director. In 1903, his film "The Great Train Robbery" showed his experimentation with editing. The single reel held humor, action, violence, hand-tinting, special effects, and a full-screen close-up of the villain shooting towards the audience. While this seems normal by today's standards, the techniques made Porter the leading filmmaker in his day.

Porter had an instinctive talent for visually exposing the plot, focusing more on the storyline than the film's characters. As the cinema changed into a medium where character development was more important than plot, Porter retired from directing and work at the Simplex projector company, working on machines and inventing new machines that he felt comfortable with.