Edwin S. Porter: the man who invented 3D cinema
If we cast our mind’s eye back to the early 2000s, there was a curious and short-lived moment when 3D cinema found its way back onto the big screen. The innovation was widely promoted by the industry and quickly led to giddy filmgoers rushing to the theatres, armed with a bucket of popcorn in one hand and swiping a pair of plastic goggles with the other before sitting down, ready for a new kind of cinematic viewing experience.
James Cameron reinvigorated the technology in 2003 when shooting his deep-sea 3D documentary, Ghosts of the Abyss, which acted as a test run of the medium before going on to develop Avatar. A year later, IMAX realised its first 3D feature, The Polar Express, and soon after, many others jumped on the bandwagon, with Coraline, My Bloody Valentine 3D, Avatar, and Martin Scorsese’s adventure movie, Hugo. Then, suddenly, the craze died out, and 3D vanished from theatres altogether.
This isn’t the first time the technology was pushed into mass cinemas and later seemed to disappear without a trace. It also happened in the early ’80s when lower-budget entertainment companies cottoned onto the opportunity to re-release old pictures, with the likes of Friday the 13th Part III in 3D and Amityville 3D; even Jaws had a flash-in-the-pan rerun in 3D. But then, once again, it departed from the silver screen. However, the very first invention of 3D cinema, which happened over 100 years ago, had a tremendous impact on cinema itself, and the innovation transformed filmmaking forever.
In 1900, the projectionist-turned-director Edwin S. Porter made a short film called Animated Luncheon. The one-scene movie presents a couple sitting down for dinner at a restaurant. They first order eggs, but when they go to crack the eggs, two live chickens appear on their plate. The catch was that Porter used his expertise as a projectionist and used trick photography and editing to make it seem as if the chickens appeared in real-time and without a cut. The film was screened as a comedy, which audiences found hilarious, but it was also groundbreaking at the time.
Porter then went on to direct another picture, which became a huge national success and cultural phenomenon at the time: The Great Train Robbery. One of the very first western pictures of all time, the film follows bandits robbing passengers on a train, and Porter implemented similar shooting techniques – trick photography and the use of dummies created the effect of people being thrown from the train, as well as bandits pointing their guns and firing directly at the camera, which at the time, terrified audiences and had them flinching in their seats. But it also used red-green anaglyph tests, which was the starting point for 3D innovation.
Surprisingly, Porter abandoned directing for some time after The Great Train Robbery and set up a company called Precision Machine Company, which developed camera equipment and experimented with 3D photography. In 1915, Porter made the first 3D film, Niagara Falls. The film involved the use of red and green spectacles to create a single image from twin motion pictures; however, the final outcome wasn’t successful, and the movie did poorly. Sadly, it was the final film Porter was to make, as his company went bankrupt soon after.
Nevertheless, Porter’s pioneering endeavours as a director and inventor changed the possibilities of cinema forever. To put it into context, Martin Scorsese even paid tribute to Porter in Goodfellas – the scene where Joe Pesci’s character shoots at the camera is a homage to the same moment that happens in The Great Train Robbery, and Scorsese’s ode to Porter.
