Views of Metropolis

I've been working on the best way to visualize cities using Photoshop. I've learned it helps to be somewhat impressionistic when creating concepts of large urban cities, or else it's easy to get bogged down in putting detailed fenestration and whatnot into individual buildings.

Robot as Maria

Rotwang kidnaps Maria in order to transform the Machinenmensch into her likeness. Maria's doppelganger seduces the upper class and leads the lower class to their own destruction. Once I had settled on a design for both the robot and Maria, I overlapped their figures to ensure that the robot could convincingly take Maria's form.

Maria

Maria is the love interest of the film and one of the heroines. She is a member of the lower class who tries to convince her brethren to follow her example and be peaceful in their wait for their savior.

She originally wears a sort of dirndl-like peasant dress and appears to be blond and blue-eyed. I re-envision her as a more exotic, dark woman not unlike the "gastarbeiters" from Turkey in modern day Germany. This visually separates the different classes and introduces some racial undertones to the class struggle. I also used references of Dorothea Lange subjects in the Great Depression as inspiration for her dress.

Rotwang

I next worked into the next most interesting character in the film, the villain, Rotwang. Rotwang is part man and part machine, possessing a mechanical hand that visually connects him to his creation, the Machinenmensch. For the purposes of creating a well rounded concept art portfolio, I decided to design the film and its elements for a CGI feature. Therefore, building the facial features and body types of the characters becomes important. For Rotwang's costume I borrowed from the original design with an influence of the dress of Nazi SS Officers in black leather.

Machinenmensch

My natural first subject for designing is the "Machinenmensch", or "Machine Person" which eventually takes the form of Maria in the film. For the purposes of this project, I wanted to stay true to the futurist/art deco design of the original design, while taking advantage of the fact that with modern film technology a robot could be designed that need not fit an actor inside. Ironically, I find myself referring to C-3PO from Star Wars, who himself was inspired by the robot in Metropolis. I began with a general color sketch right off the bat, then worked back into the design to restructure her machine components and to make her less androgynous.

Inspiration

Of course, my primary reference material is the 1927 film itself, which has a fascinating design. Delving deeper, I am researching the Futurist, Expressionist, Art Nouveau and Art Deco influences of the film and those that appeared after its release.

Similar to the 2005's King Kong, I intend to set the redesigned film in the future as envisioned in 1927, the year the original film was released, as opposed to a modernization such as that in the manga and anime version of Metropolis. This is sort of a Steampunk or Raygun Gothic approach.





Particularly of interest is the design of automobiles from the 20's and 30's and the fantastic urban renderings of Hugh Ferriss from his own "Metropolis of Tomorrow."

About this Blog

First and foremost: I'd like to express my boundless appreciation for the great director Fritz Lang and his classic works of cinema, especially Metropolis and M. The work created for this blog is in no way intended to criticize or improve upon his original work, for surely it holds a place among classic films like Citizen Kane and Casablanca that no reinterpretation can or should try to replace.

My reasons for approaching this body of work as a redesign of the original film is merely a response to my personal geekdom for the film: I draw it because I love it. Secondly, I have heard reports of the rights to this film being purchased with intent to remake it, and I must say I am not at all averse to the idea of this happening. I personally thought that Peter Jackson's update of King Kong was great at recapturing for a modern audience the spectacle and thrill that the original audience experienced. Needless to say, though, any remake would need to have a profound respect for the original work, stay as true to the plot as possible, and yet not be a soulless cut and paste job but to infuse a new approach to the work.

The main reason for creating this body of work is to expand my concept art portfolio, improve my Photoshop and hand drawing skills, build endurance to redrawing the same elements, and to demonstrate my professional capabilities with an aim to work in the entertainment industry as a concept artist.

I hope you enjoy my work,

Nathan Heigert