However, Lu and his team also faced a lot of unexpected challenges, struggling to convince ideal candidates to accept being shot for the documentary.
"We had a meeting every night at 10 pm to discuss what footage we had captured. Sometimes, it entirely depended on luck," says Lu.
Even with the consent of athletes to follow them from their accommodations to competition venues, Lu said he still had his own concerns. "We feared that the cameras might distract the athletes and hinder their chance of winning," he explains.
As the saying goes, "when one door closes, another opens". For Lu, this proved to be true. Although the filming plan did not go as originally envisioned, they were still able to discover the shining moments of ordinary people.
These stories include a barber who gave up time with his family during the Spring Festival holiday to serve the event, as well as a group of doctors who played sports with improvised "equipment", such as mineral water buckets, to entertain themselves during their stay at the Olympic Village for over 80 days.
