Throughout the Inside is a short narrative stop-motion film starring an weary old character named Quolger and his journey beyond his mundane life to find the outdoors. The story relates to how I often feel engulfed by technology - this leads to sudden urges to be immersed in nature and wildlife. My ideas for the project really started to form when I traveled to Mount Field at the beginning of the year. I was very taken by the energy of the landscape and by the animals and beasts I discovered. I kept seeing a creature in my mind, inspired by Tasmanian wildlife such as the tiger quoll, numbat, thylacine but also rodents like rats and mice.
From drawings, he evolved and I began to plan and build the armature. This was like starting from scratch as I'd only ever built puppets with wire and clay. After the armature came his foam body, his features, teeth, taxidermy eyes, feet, nose, ears and then finally his fur. I coloured his fur to give him stripes, much like a thylacine or a numbat. I wanted to give the sense that this was a creature that was possibly the last or the only of his kind - that he was built artificially but still something natural and instinctual remained inside of him.
The story follows him as he journeys beyond the everyday when he is shown the natural world through a TV set. He travels to find this place along the way encountering problems due to his frailty. He’s old and tired but he wants to experience this world before he fades into nothing. I wanted the viewer to not only relate to him but to also be uplifted by his journey and be inspired to take their own voyage beyond their everyday life.
