'Heroes without halos'

It aims to offer a panoramic view of people's lives under the conditions imposed by the viral outbreak "in a calming tone" as Zhang Wei, director of the documentary department of Youku and executive producer of the series, says.

"We don't want to deliberately arouse feelings of sentiment in people," Zhang tells China Daily. "We just want to record the real situation. In our documentary, there are difficulties for those involved in this outbreak, but it reveals warmth and positive energy as well."

Zhang understands the challenge. On the one hand, production of a documentary requires good preparation, which usually needs a long time, yet on the other hand, they are also running against the clock, and need to rush to capture the latest news from the front line.

On Jan 28, he decided to send a team to Wuhan. It was only about one week after the outbreak first began to garner nationwide attention. After getting special permission to shoot, the team arrived in the city a few days later to prepare and cameras began rolling on Feb 9, making Youku the country's first online media platform to produce its own documentary about the ongoing situation.

Cao Junlong, field producer of the documentary, confesses he felt fear when he stepped off the high-speed train into the empty railway station.

"This city should have been bustling," Cao says in an online interview with China Daily. "The emptiness made a chill run down my back. The city's streets were lit up at night, but there were no passersby as we drove. We could feel the crisis being faced by this city."