If you had just five minutes to tell a story to a global audience about Beijing in the lead-up to the Olympic Games - what would you most want to say?

If that's not daunting enough, what would you do if you were also asked to visualize the lives and dreams of its residents in a delicate balance between tradition and modernity?

Recently, internationally renowned film directors made five such promotional films about Beijing under a make-to-order arrangement for the city's charm campaign.

Among them, Italian Giuseppe Tornatore tells a story about a reunion between a retired local school teacher and her students 30 years after their graduation, while his Iranian counterpart Majid Majidi, director of the Oscar-nominated Children of Heaven, shows happy schoolchildren who bicycle through some scenic city spots to fly balloons together.

Englishman Daryl Goodrich has a sporty theme for his work as he captures moments of Beijingers playing sports. Lau Wai-Keung from Hong Kong heaps praise on Beijing's fine food, with famous Chinese artists offering testimonials after a hearty meal.

For his five minutes, French director Patrice Leconte has rejected any staged scenes in an endeavor to create a Monet-style sequence of short shots.

I would not be surprised that if the pictures they have depicted differ somewhat from what you think of the city.

Place images are said to be fluid and highly subjective and people can have different perceptions about a same place.

As such, more cities have used business marketing strategies to reinforce favorable images and challenge stereotyped and unfavorable notions about them.

The same goes for Beijing promoters who hope to help people - especially those in foreign countries - make sense of the city through media representations such as the short films.

For the films to be credible and compelling, organizers of the Vision Beijing film project listed the main selection criteria for directors as a keen interest in the city, superb skills to create images with cinematic and television techniques and an international reputation.

It's not the intention of this column to explore the artistic achievements of their creations. Audiences who will start to watch the films on the national network CCTV and on commercial flights will do that.

Organizers say they will also be aired soon by national broadcasters in Italy, France and Iran.

But I do believe well-conceived media exposure will be useful to promote Beijing.

More importantly, occasional image projects such as Vision Beijing should evolve into a systematic branding campaign to favorably influence people's perceptions both for the present circumstances and future needs of the city.