James Henry White was a Canadian film pioneer, who worked as a director, producer, and cinematographer.
He also appeared as an actor in several films.
He was employed by the Edison Manufacturing Company, and directed over 500 short films, both fictional and documentary.
Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.
Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of firemen responding to a house fire. They leave the station with their horse drawn pumper, arrive on the scene, and effect the safe rescue of a woman from the burning house. But wait, she tells them of her child yet asleep in the burning bedroom...
Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of the famous fairy tale story of Jack and his magic beanstalk. Borrowing on cinematographic methods reminiscent of 'Georges Melies' , Porter uses animation, double exposure, and trick photography to illustrate the fairy's apparitions, Jack's dream, and the fast growing beanstalk.
Two bad boys enter the kitchen. One climbs to the kitchen table and takes down the old lamp, the other goes to the flour barrel and scoops out some flour, pouring it into the chimney until it is filled to the top. The lamp is then replaced in the bracket. Grandma enters, scratches a match, removes the lamp chimney, when the flour falls upon her head. It sticks in her hair and fills her eyes, but this is where she turns the tables.
Filmed in July 1900, on the Champs Elysées in Paris, France.
People walking around the campus. The view shows an immense arch in the background through which are seen coming groups of students, some walking, others on bicycles. The ivy covered walls of the building form the background to a pleasing picture.
The wharf is crowded with live stock, and the huge derrick slowly drops the large box or sling into the bunch. Into this cradle a horse is led, and is slowly hoisted and swung over to the deck of the steamer. This picture is taken ten minutes before sailing time.
“This film is remarkable in several respects. In the first place, it is full life-size. Secondly, it is the only accurate recent portrait of the great inventor. The scene is an actual one, showing Mr. Edison in working dress engaged in an interesting chemical experiment in his great Laboratory. There is sufficient movement to lead the spectator through the several processes of mixing, pouring, testing, etc. as if he were side by side with the principal. The lights and shadows are vivid, and the apparatus and other accessories complete a startling picture that will appeal to every beholder.” (Edison Catalog)
A fellow in a wide-brimmed hat, with a willowy stick for a rod and a baited hook, sits down on a plank hanging over a bridge above a stream. He sticks the rod under his seat and picks up his bottle to take a swig. Behind him creeps a joker who removes the large flagstone that's holding the fisherman's plank in place.