Casting/Major Characters

Major Locations

It should be mentioned that we intend to have various locations for Expose. Some locations will include Richard’s nightclubs. Others may be restaurants, hotels, theaters, lounges, etc., which can be located in any city.

First Season Plots Arcs

Cedric’s journey in America will consist of various encounters the prince has with some odd feature of American culture. Cedric’s home country has stricter societal pressures than America, so the lax American lifestyle surprises him. This prince will have difficulty in understanding things such as social media and reality television. He will not understand why American culture encourages people to pursue careers in the arts. He will not understand why there are homeless people. He assumes that people will cater to his every request, forgetting the fact that outside of Eleguard he is an ordinary citizen. Gene will have to guide Cedric through the ins and outs of American culture. Fundamentally, the function of this plot arc is to demonstrate how sheltered Cedric’s life has been up to his arrival in America.

Cedric attempts to convince Anastasia to come back and marry him. After Cedric finally finds Anastasia, he thinks that all he has to do to get Anastasia to return to is to ask. However, Anastasia resists, which confuses Cedric. He does not understand why she would want to stay in America, a country he considers crass and improper. Cedric continues his attempts to persuade Anastasia by saying that his love for her is the reason that they should return to Europe. That way they can be properly married. Anastasia believes that if Cedric really loved her then he would understand why she wants to stay in America. Cedric does not understand, but he promises to try to see things from Anastasia’s perspective. As Anastasia introduces Cedric to American culture, his character will develop from the once obedient and disciplined prince to a liberated individual who embraces the freedom from royal responsibility. (maintaining his disguise)

The first season will also reveal why Anastasia left the royal family in the first place. As mentioned previously, Anastasia left because she wanted to pursue her pop career. However, there is more reason behind her departure than just that. The first season will reveal that Anastasia’s disappearance was incited by the ulterior motives of the prince’s younger brother, Everett. Everett’s objective is to steal the throne from his older brother by showing the royal family that Cedric is unfit to be king. Everett’s plan starts out with manipulating Anastasia into leaving Europe; Anastasia did not decide to leave until Everett tricked her into thinking that she would be better off outside of the kingdom pursuing her dreams. Everett was aware of how much his brother Cedric loved Anastasia and expected her disappearance to make Cedric too distraught take on the position of king. Although he may not have foreseen that Cedric would leave to go find Anastasia, it advances his interests nonetheless because in the absence of the rightful heir to the throne, Everett has every opportunity to become king.

Marketing Information

Expose will be told in a serial format. The overall story will be the prince’s search for his fiancée with each episode depicting a new development and/or obstacle in the search. The intent is to have subsequent episodes be a continuation of previous episodes, therefore each episode will not be able to function independently of another episode’s story.

Expose is combination of drama, romance, and comedy. The dramatic plots will come from the strain in the relationship between the prince and his now estranged fiancée. Romance will come from the how much Cedric is willing to sacrifice for his love of the princess. Further conflict that contributes to the drama of the show will be the political unrest caused by both the prince’s and the princess’ unexpected disappearance. The princess herself will also have a dramatic plotline which will be situated in her pursuit of a career as a pop artist. Expose will also incorporate comedic elements which will derive from the prince’s inability in assimilate into the American public. The prince’s silly misunderstandings of the strange American customs will occasionally provide comedic relief. Furthermore, comedy will also come from the prince’s inability to behave like ordinary member of the public. The prince holds onto his self-entitled and pompous attitude, which results in minor quarrels with a few of the American citizens he encounters along his journey. More comedy will come from contrast in Gene’s characterization. Gene is an older gentlemen (60s-70s) who somehow has been able to stay up-to-date on all of the current trends and fads of American popular culture.

Audience Demographics and Similar Shows

The intended audience for Expose is adults, particularly women aged from 18-49. This particular demographic group is within the range of the audience who watched television shows similar to Expose. Similar shows to Expose are mentioned below and taking into account the success those shows experienced, we suspect that Expose will perform within said demographic.

We suspect that Expose will have similar success as The Royals within the target demographic. The Royals follows the lives of a fictional British royal family and the costs that come with being of such high status. Both shows are similar in that they share mutual plotlines situated in the inner workings of a royal family. The Royals has been been successful in demographics such as females between the ages of 18 and 34 as well as 18 and 49 (Baron, 2015). The show maintained its viewership up to its first season finale where 1.1 million people aged between 18 and 39 watched (Baron, 2015).

The television series Younger is a 22-minute drama-comedy, which makes it a competitor for Expose. Younger follows the life of a 40-year old woman who poses as a 26-year old in order to circumvent the ageism preventing her return to the publishing industry. A common theme between both Expose and Younger is the determination of a strong female to obtain a desirable career despite their circumstances. Younger also uses the tactic of disguise, which will be incorporated in Expose by the prince who must hide his identity while searching for his fiancée. Younger has performed well in its second season among the adult demographic. “Among the network’s key demographic of adults 25-54, the series rose 82 percent from premiere to finale, according to Nielsen’s Live Plus 3-Day rating measurement, and 135 percent among women 25-54 also using L3 numbers” (Otterson, 2015).

Hart of Dixie was a television series that followed the story of a New York woman who starts her medical practice in a rural Alabama town. The genre of this show is similar to Expose in that it is a drama, comedy, and romance. Furthermore, Expose and Hart of Dixie share the common theme of a displaced main character who must adjust to a new environment. The second season of the series averaged a 0.6 rating among adults 18-49 with a season average of 1.36 million viewers (TV Series Finale, 2014). The series suffered a considerable drop in ratings in its third season averaging about 0.35 in the same demographic (Nielsen, 2013). The CW renewed it for a fourth season, which eventually became its final season.

Although the aforementioned shows share some similarities with Expose, our show is considerably distinguishable from the others. One feature of our show that makes it different is its focus on the search. Currently, there are not very many narratives on television that concentrate on the search for something. Expose will benefit from the lack of that narrative in the market. We intend for the journey to find one’s lost love to be a selling point of our serial. Current royal family dramas, such as The Royals, concentrate of the themes of opulence, corruption, and extortion with much less of an emphasis on romance. Expose will reverse this trend by concentrating on the romance in the relationship between the prince and his fiancée , therefore it will be distinct from the narrative trends present in The Royals. Another intention we have for Expose is to make Prince Cedric a sympathetic character; the prince is genuinely heartbroken that his fiancée has left him. We intend to captivate the audience through this sympathy and thus make our viewers care about the profound anguish of Cedric. We suspect that the audience will invest themselves in Cedric’s search for his love because they will want to see the end of his suffering and the joy of having Anastasia back in his arms.

Reference List

Baron, Steve. (2015, May 8). E!'s Hit Series 'The Royals' Reaches Record Audience Highs with All Key Demos . Retrieved from http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/network-press-releases/es-hit-series-the-royals-reache s-record-audience-highs-with-all-key-demos/
Baron, Steve. (2015, May 22). E! Delivers Live +3 Ratings Highs Led by 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians: About Bruce' & 'The Royals' Finale . Retrieved from http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/network-press-releases/e-delivers-live-3-ratings-highs- led-by-keeping-up-with-the-kardashians-about-bruce-the-royals-finale/
Nielsen Company, The. (2013). Hart of Dixie: Season Three Ratings. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/183xVGbAtVk-Fj7f4PrUixza9odtrXqQa3B8qxhJ AdJg/pubhtml/sheet?headers=false&gid=4&range=A1%3AH30&output=html&rm=minim al
Otterson, Joe. (2015, June 17). Darren Star’s ‘Younger’ Sets Ratings Records for TV Land. The Wrap . Retrieved from http://www.thewrap.com/darren-stars-younger-sets-ratings-records-for-tv-land/
TV Series Finale. (2014, May 17). Hart of Dixie: Season Three Ratings. Retrieved from http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/hart-of-dixie-season-three-ratings-30278/

EXPOSE

Time to take off the crown.

Logline

A pampered European prince is suddenly thrust into American culture when his chauffeur tricks him into a quest to find the runaway princess.

Tagline
Time to take off the crown.

Show Synopsis

Prince Cedric awakens one day to find an unpleasant surprise: his fiancée has gone missing. The prince collapses into a state of distress, which only worsens when the royal family begins to wonder about the whereabouts of the soon-to-be princess. After attempting to deflect the curiosity of the royal family, the prince finds out from his chauffeur, Gene, that his fiancée has defected to America. In spite of the prince’s reluctance, Gene tricks him into travelling to America to find the runaway princess. However hesitant the prince may be to the sudden departure to a foreign country, he soon realizes that he has no choice for if the princess does not return, then the future of his country is in jeopardy.

Pilot Treatment

Beatsheets

Ep. 1:02 Script

Prince Cedric Caldwell

Prince Cedric Caldwell is the protagonist and heir to the throne of Eleguard. He is set to become king of a new nation created by the union of Wistoria and Eleguard. He is very privileged and proper by nature of his upbringing.

Prince Cedric is a male in his late 20’s. He has a regal and stoic, but yet inviting appearance. He has sandy blonde to light brown hair with an average stature. This is why Alex Pettyfer would be a great casting for Cedric.

Prince Everett Caldwell

Prince Everett Caldwell, Cedric’s younger brother, is the antagonist. He is behind Cedric in line for the throne and goes to great lengths to con him out of it. He is charming, yet very entitled and manipulative.

Everett is a male in his early to mid 20’s. He has very strong features with a sense of mystery. He has dark hair and bright eyes. This is why casting Finn Wittrock as Everett would be a great choice.

Gene Brookshire

Gene Brookshire is the longtime royal driver for Prince Cedric. He represents the omniscient character who knows the ins and outs of this world. His past as a burned out American pop-star’s ex-bodyguard and is devoted to maintaining Cedric’s public image and goes to great lengths to fight for him.

Gene is a male in his late 60’s to early 70’s. He has a lively and passionate spirit. He has very a very stone-faced appearance. This is why Michael Caine would be a great casting for Gene.

Princess Anastasia Valerii

Princess Anastasia Valerii is the princess of Wistoria. She resents all of the rules and etiquette of royalty and desires to escape from her responsibilities as princess. She dreams of a being a successful hip-hop artist, but such dreams are unacceptable since they would damage her family's reputation. She gathers the courage to turn her back on all the expectations imposed upon her and runs away to America to start her hip-hop career.

Anastasia is a female in her early to mid 20’s. She is a beautiful brunette with distinct features that transfer over when she goes blonde. She has an elegant and charming air about her, so Lily Collins would be the perfect casting.

Richard Dan Hughes

Richard ‘Richer’ Dan Hughes is an American nightclub owner, music producer, and wannabe reality tv star. He is rich, arrogant, and sneaky. He goes to great lengths to convince Anastasia that he is her ticket to success as a hip-hop artist. He uses his position in an attempt to extort Anastasia, however his efforts lead to no avail.

Richard is a male in his early 30’s. He is a very extravagant and confident character. He has very distinct features, including longer hair. That is why Russell Brand would be the ideal casting for Richard.

Queen Joanna Caldwell

Queen Joanna is the widowed queen of Eleguard. She is the mother of Cedric and Everett. She highly favors Cedric and become distraught by his disappearance. She is a very strong matriarch figure who is a strong leader in both her family and her country.

Joanna is a female in her late 50’s to early 60’s. She has a very regal and poised air about her. She has shorter hair and piercing eyes. For these reasons, Glenn Close would be the ideal casting for her

Nightclub

One location will be a Los Angeles nightclub where Anastasia occasionally hosts her hip-hop performances. Anastasia lives in the loft above the night club. The club is owned by Richard Hughes, a wealthy entrepreneur. He owns multiple nightclubs across the country, some of which he sends Anastasia to perform. Richard’s nightclubs will also provide the locations of some of the serial’s sets.

It is massive with multiple floors and large screens for visuals.

Exchange LA Nightclub would be a great option for filming.

Hotel

The hotel suite that Cedric and Gene stay in is a main location. The suite is a mid-class, simple room at a hotel in Los Angeles. It is not too flashy as to go with the prince’s tourist-type disguise. This is where they gather information and where Cedric works to discover the truth. Within this suite is where he comes out of disguise and is himself.

The Georgian Hotel would be a great fit due to it's location in Santq Monica and unique aesthetic.

Castle

Another location frequently used will be the fictional country named Eleguard. This is the homeland of Prince Cedric and the Caldwell royal family. It will be used in the pilot and periodically throughout the series for flashbacks and occasional visits. Locations within the country include the courtyard, the library, the palace grounds, and the foyer. The main location used is the ballroom where Cedric and Anastasia's engagement is announced.

Buildings in the French Riviera were our inspiration, but any large western european castle will fit.

Pilot Script

*Pilot Episode written by Jordan Dawson