It takes great skill to tell a compelling story in under 60 seconds. These five directors have mastered the format, using their talent, craft and imagination to provide us with some of the most innovative filmmaking out there today.

I had wanted to make a film about World War II for some time, but I didn't really want to do something that was set in the trenches, so to speak.

So I do tend to do documentaries where I can move in and out of them.

When I joined Granada - which, you don't want to start crying about these things, but Granada was a very, very hot place to be, it was my good fortune to be there at that time - the BBC was firmly asleep.

I've never much been interested in doing films that no one gets to see.

I'd love to direct commercials on Caribbean beacheswith luscious women rubbing on suntan lotion, but all I get arethese documentary-type things.

I'd always wanted to do something about the Second World War, but I didn't want to do another combat film, whether it was air, land, or sea.