Ballet Office
In 2024, I wrote a story about a cursed clock's journey from an off license shop to an art gallery. This is the original outline. I'm currently developing a visual script treatment.
2004 Southampton
A small corner shop is run by Raheem (55). He hires Melina (38) to help at the counter. Melina and her daughter Sonia (12) come to live in the flat above. Sonia struggles to make friends at school and gets bullied for her bad English. Raheem's adopted son, Johnny (18), is preparing to study art in uni. He takes patronage of Sonia, and they spend the summer building things and painting the shop. It looks wonky, but it becomes a real local landmark.
There's an old broken Pepsi clock in the shop. Sonia and Johnny decide to repair it and give it some personality. They install the clock mechanism upside down and repaint the numbers, so the 6 is at the top, and 12 at the bottom.
Raheem says it's a bad omen, but Johnny puts the clock up anyway. As soon as the clock is on, the shop is plagued by misfortune. A month after, Raheem suddenly dies. Johnny disappears. Having lost the job and the free apartment, Melina and Sonia leave for London in pursuit of better career opportunities.
2019 London
Mark and Izzy own an art gallery. Things are ok, but they want to gain influence and advance to a higher echelon. Izzy is building relationships with big shot collectors and art advisors. Mark is in charge of artist relations. To maximize profit margins, he often negotiates a higher price with the buyer, and communicates a much lower price to the artist – so the gallery’s commission ends up higher than agreed percentage.
Sonia is now a struggling curator. She spends her days writing proposals and applying for funding – to a very limited success. She can’t believe her luck when Mark and Izzy offer her the position of an assistant gallery manager. The atmosphere is highbrow, but pleasant. She tries to fit in.
One day while Mark’s away, she is tasked with overseeing an important sale. The artwork in question is the upside down Pepsi clock she and Johnny put up in the corner shop in 2003. Mark tells her about the significance of this piece, its authenticity and conceptual integrity.
The name of the piece is Ballet Office #3. It's about to be exhibited in Shanghai and has an offer of £350k on it.
Sonia looks up Ballet Office and finds who it was sourced from: Keith, who runs a corner shop also called Ballet Office. He sold the clock to Mark for £800.
2009 Brighton
A new art centre opens in Brighton. It offers residencies and puts up exhibitions. It attracts a lot of aspiring young artists.
One of the first residents is Ballet. He’s barely ever there and it looks as if he's about to drop out. Then he turns up with a van full of very unique looking things: pink and purple acrylic paintings of cleaning products, booze and groceries – arranged in rows. There's also scales without the scale, a 90s cash register programmed to show random words, a cigarette wending machine, and an upside down Pepsi clock.
He claims he made all of it himself, but people don't believe him, as no one’s ever seen him working, apart from doing a few small acrylic landscapes. Other artists, including self-appointed community leader Mark, say it shouldn't be put in the show. Izzy, the curator, reluctantly decides to exclude Ballet.
Ballet briefly considers getting rid of the clock in case it does bring misfortune, but dismisses that idea. Instead, he decides to put up his own show, and partners with a local shopkeeper to temporarily make an off license into a venue. The venue, Ballet Office, hosts the artwork and runs a few parties. People love it. Ballet sells some work.
Inspired by the success, Ballet talks the shop owner into making the new venue permanent. They redecorate and, among other things, install the upside down clock. Shortly after it’s on, rumours start to spread that the place is taken over by a crime gang, the locals start to complain about the noise, while the crowds cease to turn up.
Ballet can’t be sure if the misfortune is the result of Mark’s calculated efforts or the clock’s curse. As the loan repayment deadline gets closer, Ballet disappears. Izzy offers to buy out the artwork to help out. The shop owner sells Ballet's artwork including the clock.
The shop goes back to selling groceries.
2019 Brighton + Southampton
Sonia visits Ballet Office. It still looks bonkers, but sells organic groceries. The owner cautions against getting involved with Ballet (a real weirdo), but gives Sonia his contact.
In Southampton, now a practicing psychic Ballet opens the door to a somewhat familiar young woman who is Sonia. He thinks she’s a former client, but eventually remembers her. She recognises him, but he’s not the easygoing cool guy she remembers. He wears a lot of rings and has a permanent smirk.
Ballet does remember the cursed clock, and Mark’s efforts to get rid of him. He doesn't believe there's any point in getting his art career back. But he’s very annoyed to hear that Mark and Izzy have a gallery together. However the news that they’re trying to sell the cursed Pepsi clock makes him very happy. He claims that once the upside down clock is back up, the world's forces will get back to an equilibrium. Mark will get his karma.
Sonia is torn: Ballet’s story and beliefs seem deranged, but at the same time, it’s hard to dismiss what she’d seen happen in her childhood; plus, she still sees Johnny as a mentor figure.
2019 London
Back at the gallery, Mark tells Sonia off for trying to research the artwork. He says she must stick with the narrative he gives her.
Frustrated, Sonia goes to Izzy and explains that selling the clock for £350k is morally wrong, not just because they bought it for £800, but also because it’s cursed and will bringing misfortune on whoever buys it.
Izzy thought the clock was being sold for £35k. They fight. Mark says, what does it matter, the guy’s dead. Sonia says, no he isn’t. Izzy insists they must meet him. He’s the most talented artist she’d ever met, and an ex-lover. Sonia warns her he’s a bit weird these days. Izzy doesn’t believe it.
A few weeks later, Ballet visits the gallery. Initially distant and dismissive, he buys into Izzy’s praise, and plays along. Izzy offers him an artist commission, and says that the sale is in good faith.
Mark is fuming – he meant to keep the sale secret and use it to pay for his vanity project.
Izzy orders that Sonia reports to her and Mark steps down.
2020 Shanghai
Sonia feels conflicted and worries the clock is actually cursed, but she doesn't want to let Izzy down, so she and Ballet travel to Shanghai and close the deal with the buyer. The upside down clock is purchased by a Chinese collector. Sonia becomes an assistant curator at Izzy’s gallery and replaces Mark.
A few days later, Mr. Kengkeng Chang, a prominent Chinese art collector, orders to put the clock up in his living room. As his housekeeper puts the new battery in, Kengkeng stubs his toe on a Regency era divan. As he grimaces in pain, a notification pops up on his phone:
⚠️ Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, and Anhui launch first-level response mechanisms for major public health emergency posed by the new highly infectious Coronavirus COVID-19.
The toe is broken and will take months and months to heal.
Izzy and Ballet may be stuck in China for months.
