The Princess in the Vase USA, 1908 D.W. Griffith Directed by Wallace McCutcheon    In ancient Egypt, a vision incriminates a princess' adulterous affair. In contemporary Egypt, an Egyptologist dreams that the cremated Egyptian princess is reincarnated from her own ashes in a shattered vase. Early acting work by D.W. Griffith, who had turned to cinema after an unsuccessful career a as stage actor and writer. He appeared in a number of early films, and in 1908 joined The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in New York finally as a director. He made over 400 one- and two-reelers (15-30 minutes in length). These were typically mostly westerns, romances, comedies, melodramas, historical epics, and adventure tales. In many of these short films, he experimented with early lighting and camera techniques and systematized their use. As such he is considered the greatest American movie pioneer of all time.