"As the virus is rampant, I believe that where the lens is, there is a precious page about life," he wrote in the announcement, which was read over 10 million times.

Approximately 3,000 clips, of various lengths, had been sent to Qin by the time the deadline rolled around on Feb 12. He named the upcoming film One More Day.

Qin is also a poet, which might explain his romantic way of observing the world.

In 2015, his documentary The Verse of Us, which follows a group of poetry fanatics among migration workers, brought him a best documentary award at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival.

"If poets just live in their own spiritual world and stay away from reality, their foundation will be shattered because concern for country and humanity continuously offer inspiration," Qin says.

For One More Day, Qin borrowed the idea from Life in a Day (2011), a widely-acclaimed US documentary in which people filmed their daily trivialities to create a mosaic of life around the world on the same day.

He says: "Since it has become common in China for the public to use smartphones to record their lives, why not have a go at doing something similar? We can also have a kaleidoscopic visual log of this extraordinary period from people's own perspective."

Qin says the collected clips have a wide range of themes but family life accounts for the majority.

"Most people don't usually have such a long time to spend with their families at home, particularly those who come from smaller cities but working in a metropolis like Beijing or Shanghai," he says. "They have to look for a way to redefine their relationships with their parents."