It's interesting how differently a single brief can be interpreted. So Getty Images found after commissioning seven directors from around the world to create a :60 film based on an esoteric concept, The Big Idea. The project - which officially launches June 25 at Cannes (following a seminar at the D&AD Congress) - is designed to explore creativity worldwide and allow directors to experiment with digital, stock-based filmmaking.

Getty gave each filmmaker the uncensored ability to come up with a film that would be "meaningful, impactful and unpredictable". The only restrictions were that 50% of the content had to be downloaded from Getty's online database of still and moving images, and that it be created digitally.

London-based SVP/creative Lewis Blackwell identified seven artists known for having great ideas and pushing creative boundaries. They were: Intro (London); Koichiro Tsujikawa (Tokyo); Logan (LA); Marc Raymond Wilkins (Berlin); Pleix (Paris); Plus et Plus (New York); and The Glue Society (Sydney).

So how do the films stack up? Well, the 'big ideas' range from a missile-like pig wreaking havoc on both urban and suburban collages (Intro) to a surrealist pastiche of contemporary and historical images (Plus et Plus); a sense of world doom discovered during lovemaking (The Glue Society); and a hallucinatory evolution from abstract to beautiful (Pleix).

While the parameters only dictated using 50% stock footage, each film was made up of anywhere from 80% to 100% stock - with the exception of the Glue Society's largely live-action piece. Getty considers this move toward desktop creation to be the next frontier of filmmaking.

"Most people today still tend to use stock in predictable ways, which just reinforce preexisting notions," says Jennifer Burak, VP/product marketing, film, at Getty. She hopes these films will break the pattern.