The sweetest in the entertainment industry

Chapter 397 Wan Fuquan

Wan Fuquan works at CCTV and is a director who specializes in making documentaries about humanities and history.

I've been in this industry for almost forty years now.

Throughout his career, he has led more than thirty well-known and successfully broadcast projects of varying sizes.

It can be said that in his field, there is no one more experienced than him.

The reason I don't say I'm the best is simply because I've worked in the system for too long and have become used to being humble.

He photographed cultural relics, history, court intrigues, political maneuvering, and social issues...

They've even made food documentaries full of everyday life.

In his view, his career has come to an end. He has experienced everything he could, and there is nothing to regret.

Once I officially retire next April, I can start writing my memoirs.

For the rest of my life, I will probably focus on things like walking birds, planting flowers, fishing, playing chess, raising cats, and practicing Tai Chi.

Unexpectedly, one day, he was forcibly pulled onto a completely new track because of his name.

The reason was that Lu Zhendong, the head of the Lu Group, personally came to his door and repeatedly asked him to help make a wedding documentary for his youngest son and his wife.

This documentary filmed from the wedding preparations to the six rites, the main wedding ceremony, and post-wedding customs, lasting several months and spanning a long period, but the workload was not too large.

There are at least twenty directors across the country who are professional enough to take on this job, because it's really not that difficult.

But he's the only one whose name is so auspicious, as if it were tailor-made for a wedding documentary.

So he was chosen by this family, and they insisted on inviting him even after making three visits to his humble abode.

The Lu family was very sincere, and Wan Fuquan never thought he would receive such a job request. He was really curious about what the final product would look like, so he readily agreed.

The entire process of this wedding was finalized only after repeated consultations by a group of experts and scholars based on historical materials of prominent families in the Ming Dynasty.

Each step is handled by a dedicated person, and he only needs to lead a team to faithfully record each step.

Even the editing is handled by someone else; he only needs to explain the effect he wants.

After all, Starlight Entertainment is a leading company in the industry, with countless top-notch video editors at its disposal.

He is free to unleash his artistic talent and capture the wedding as a masterpiece of humanistic art.

Upon learning of this, the television station even purchased the premiere rights to the documentary in advance, saving him the trouble of signing a contract before his retirement.

The documentary filming officially began in a bright and clean conference room.

A group of experts and scholars, wearing gloves and with history books in front of them, were having an enthusiastic discussion about how ancient weddings were conducted.

With the aim of promoting Chinese culture, this segment was filmed in great detail, and the experts and scholars explained it very clearly.

What social status one had, what formal attire one wore, and what procedures one followed—all of these are documented in historical records.

Now that the feudal dynasties have long since collapsed, as long as you have money, you can hold a wedding according to the standards of an emperor's wedding without any problem.

However, when communicating with the team, Gu Lanxi chose to follow the standards of an ordinary official.

The main reason is that the formal attire for commoners is too shabby, so this is a better solution that satisfies both needs.

Once the process is finalized, we can begin the formal preparations.

The most important things are the couple's wedding attire and the wedding venue design. In addition, there are several versions of the wedding invitation design alone.

Wan Fuquan divided the filming crew into four groups at that time, each following up on the project separately.

One group even went to the young couple and recorded Gu Lanxi discussing detailed plans for various matters with her team through online meetings, as well as Lu Nanting writing wedding invitations during various work breaks.

This top celebrity couple, who are usually incredibly busy, still managed to find time for their wedding.

If they really wanted a perfect wedding, how many people in this world could be busier than them?

Ultimately, it all boils down to whether you put your heart into it or not. And whether you put your heart into it or not, aside from personal personality, the biggest influencing factor is whether you love someone enough.

Lu Tai, with her rich experience, was very adept at preparing these things.

Three months is neither a long nor a short time.

If we act quickly, we could make a movie.

But when it gets overwhelmed by all sorts of trivial matters, it becomes utterly insignificant.

The young couple were aiming for a lifelong commitment to each other, and this wedding almost fulfilled all their expectations.

Lu Tai is like Doraemon without any bottom line; she will try every means to make them want anything they want.

For example, in order to make the wedding more meaningful, Gu Lanxi suggested incorporating various intangible cultural heritage techniques to the greatest extent possible.

To this end, Lu Tai and his team spent three whole days compiling a booklet of intangible cultural heritage that was dozens of pages long.

The content includes six parts, such as "Clothing and Accessories: The 'Decent' Woven by Intangible Cultural Heritage Techniques", "Rituals and Spaces: The Atmosphere Created by Intangible Cultural Heritage Handicrafts", and "Tokens and Souvenirs: The Emotional Carriers of Intangible Cultural Heritage Handicrafts".

From the craftsmanship of the wedding attire to the lanterns scattered throughout the courtyard, and even the sachets distributed to the guests, everything was exquisite and beautiful.

It can be said that Lu Tai spent the entire fourth quarter working on this matter.

But she didn't feel tired at all. On the contrary, she was cheerful and energetic every day, and didn't look like a woman in her sixties at all.

Time passed little by little, and before we knew it, it was the latter half of January.

Gu Lanxi finally returned to Beijing from her business trip to Hangzhou.

At this point, there were only ten days left until the wedding ceremony on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month.

The imperfect pearl on the spare wedding shoe was replaced, and all the preparations were finally completed right on time.

Before the six rites, because the Lu and Gu families were located in the south and the north respectively, Gu Lanxi had to go south to Guangzhou to do one thing—bring her mother's memorial tablet to the capital to attend her wedding.

So she only stayed at home for one night before taking action.

This wedding is not just a union of two younger generations, but also a strategic alliance between two families.

Representatives from all branches of the Gu family attended the wedding. After Gu Lanxi entered the ancestral hall, paid her respects to her ancestors, and came out carrying her mother's memorial tablet, everyone would board the private plane provided by the Gu family and fly directly back to Beijing.

It was a sunny day. According to the Gu clan rules, the film crew was not allowed to enter and film. However, through the efforts of the film crew, and because representatives from each branch of the clan happened to be returning, and it also happened to be Gu Lanxi's wedding day, they finally got the opportunity to film the ancestral hall courtyard and its general layout.

Because the Gu Clan Ancestral Hall is still in use and ancestral tablets are enshrined inside, permission has not been granted for the interior of the building.

However, this was enough for Wan Fuquan.

He set up his camera and, with carefully considered aesthetic principles, captured the moment when Gu Lanxi carried her mother's memorial tablet out of the room.

She was dressed in all white, with her hair tied in a high ponytail and a silk hair flower adorned with champagne-colored pearls.

She looked like a jade statue.

The moment she stepped from darkness into sunlight, tears welled up in her eyes due to the light, but she slowly blinked, revealed a faint smile, and looked up slightly.

Poor Wanfuquankai is about to celebrate his 60th birthday, and seeing this scene still makes my heart race.

After filming wrapped up, as he walked out along the long corridor, he seemed to hear a wail, but in the blink of an eye, only the sound of the wind remained.

He assumed he had misheard and didn't investigate further.

Thank you everyone for your blessings. Sister Wang was accepted into her desired primary school through the lottery. From now on, she won't have to walk such a long way to school anymore. She was so excited today that she burst into tears.

I haven't been sleeping or eating well for a week now.

If I don't get into my first-choice elementary school, the second closest one will be 10 kilometers round trip every day. Over nine years, assuming an average of 195 days of school per year, I would need to walk 17550 kilometers, which is roughly equivalent to walking to Beijing and back five times.

Now, with the elementary school next to our community, our children don't even need to cross the road to get to school. As they get a little older, they can go to and from school by themselves. When their younger brother starts elementary school, they can even go to and from school together.

Oh, I'm so happy.