Exposé

The exposé is your first written calling card—the weapon with which you must convince producers, broadcasters, or investors in two pages that your project is worth developing. It is not the story itself, but the promise of the story. While a treatment already paints scenes and a screenplay contains dialogue, the exposé distills everything essential to the absolute minimum: What happens? Who are the players? What world is created? And why should someone spend money on it?

In practice, you write the exposé in the present tense, flowing like a short narrative, not like a synopsis. The first page summarizes the plot and conflict—three to four paragraphs maximum. Then follow bullet points on style (tonality, visual reference, camera approach), budget scale, and casting ideas. Some producers also request a line about the potential audience or marketability. The length: 1.5 to a maximum of 2 pages, DIN A4, 11-point font. No more—those who can't captivate in two pages won't captivate in 90 minutes.

The tricky part: A good exposé needs dramatic clarity and character at the same time. You have to show that you yourself know what it's about without appearing dry. A common mistake is telling too much plot or remaining too abstract. The exposé of a drama would never outline all the twists—it only sketches the emotional core and the question that carries the film. For genre films, it's the opposite: format and tension are of interest there, not philosophical depth.

Practical advice: Always write your exposé AFTER initial conceptual clarification, but BEFORE the treatment. It forces you to set priorities. And if you realize that your project cannot be summarized in two pages, it's a sign that you yourself don't really know what it's about yet. So, the exposé is also a working tool for yourself—not just a sales instrument. Many experienced producers and directors even write their exposé after the treatment to sharpen what really matters.