Search For Metropolis

The word Metropolis literally translates to "Mother City" which leads us to believe that the set design should be a visual representation of human excellence. Grandiose facades with gothic elements, ballroom interiors with over the top embellishments and heavy machinery with hundreds of little flashing lights would not have been in short supply. Looking at the architecture of the period, we can see that Germany had these larger than life superstructures in spades so there was no shortage of inspiration when it came to set construction for the stage adaptation.

In order to give the audience an idea of the innovation that the architects of Metropolis employed while keeping costs down I'd suggest that we use cardboard. ALOT of cardboard. Simply because all that would need to be done is to cut out shapes, so to speak. As far as the buildings go, the details could of course be drawn and painted into existence or just left to the viewers imagination. The sheer number of cardboard structures of all sorts of shapes and sizes would theoretically serve the purpose of showing the audience the vastness of the city. These buildings would be made from huge cardboard sheets aquired from local supply stores or we could just repurpose the packaging from some of the larger appliances which I'm sure would be readily available at any warehouse or big box department store. The only issue would be procuring them before the workers have the chance to break them down and throw them into the garbage.

According to the magazine popular mechanics, in the movie, the entire city was built as a miniature model so a camera could pan through, making it appear to be a living, breathing future city. Special-effects supervisor Eugen Schüfftan developed a technique that used mirrors to place actors into the miniature city to make it appear more lifelike; the technique was later called the Schüfftan process. This could definitely be achieved through the use of projectors to supply the backdrop for the on-stage action.[1]

The attire would (for the most part) be very simple. The workers would just be dressed in black clothing. Whether ragged, dingy or perfectly pressed, the only objective would be to make sure that all workers are dressed similarly. Dickies brand coveralls would be the most obvious choice but, I'm sure a few trips to local thrift shops would provide satisfactory garments as well (for alot cheaper).

For the above-worlders, I would suggest white apparel to truly emphasize the stark differences between the two groups. The males could also have things like top-hats and walking canes, while the women could go crazy with costume jewelry and bits of fabric made into "exquisite" shawls and the like.

The most pressing bit of wardrobe would perhaps be that of Futura, the humanoid propaganda machine. In the original stage production her body was mostly made from heavy wood and the actress that had to don this getup continuously fought with bouts of exhaustion during filming. Luckily today we would not be limited to this material. There would be no shortage of costume parts in the thrift stores or we could even construct the suit out of cardboard and paper mache'.

HOW TO GO FROM POVERTY TO IMAGES OF EXCESS?