Bestimmtheit in the short filmShort film has been around longer than many of us realize. The very first films made in the early 1910s were not feature films, far from it, and never lasted more than 15 minutes. DW Griffith, well known for his cinematic experiments, was the first director to venture into films longer than 15 minutes. These early films were shorts (or "shorts"), these pioneering directors experimenting with what they could and could not do with a moving camera. Early short films involved filming people boarding a train or a similar mundane act. People reacted to this and flocked to watch these films, simply because of the novelty of seeing reflections, rather than shadows, on the screen. But as audiences became savvier, filmmakers began to understand the need to innovate. In the 1920s, experiments in surrealism took place, with people, such as Salvadore Dali, embarking on the "new" art of cinema (Cooper, ii). Despite great advances in technological expertise and cinematic technique, today's short films still suffer from the same limitation as their predecessors: time. For a single story to be compressed into 15 minutes, the director and screenwriter must ensure that every object in the mise-en-scene is of absolute relevance, thereby maximizing the use of screen time (also known as "screen time"). histoire-time", or history).This essay uses a contemporary short film and an 18th century text to discuss Chatman's concern with bestimmtheit in films. I hope to address some concerns such as the extent to which a film can "specify" a particular object and what this specification does in relation to our understanding of the text Additionally, I will relate the compression of information in imagery to the limits of time, given that a short film has a limit of. 15 minutes To do this, I will analyze the cinematography of the short film, and show their relevance in bringing out certain scenarios described in Defoe's text The short film in question is The Periwig-Maker, a claymation animation film. directed by Stephen Schaeffler and narrated by actor Kenneth Brannagh, and it will be analyzed in relation to the text on which it is based, Daniel's A Journal of the Plague Year. Defoe. To clear up some misconceptions regarding the origin of The Periwig-Maker, let me first add a disclaimer. Stephen Schaeffler founded the events that