Rotwang's Lab

There is a lot of gadgets and experiments in Rotwangs Lab which is going to inspire my design for the garage. 

Rotwang's Lab. Really nice details. His lab inspired the frankenstein franchise.
-Curved shelves, glass beakers, spirally lights, geometric shape out of wall.

Interesting spiralled fluorescent Lights.

The star in the background is pictured throughout this scene, on Rotwangs door and random walls in his house.

Visual precedents

This film was made in 1927, however it was based in the distant future. Throughout the film 'futuristic' props and buildings are displayed. A lot of these designs maintain a simple geometric silhouette. 

E.g:

Circular shape silhouette, with detailing within.

E.g:

In this scene, note the geometric shape of the bed - (the hexagon like headboard).
Also note the beside lights.

I want to ensure that although I am creating a garage maintained by a mad scientist, that the building itself still looks to be a part of the movie as a whole. Thus I will keep to Lang's style, looking closely at the geometric details and structure as a whole

1927 Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang

I have chose the scene in Metropolis where we see the crazy inventor - Rotwang's house for the first time.

The scene begins with a black screen and the words:

"In the middle of Metropolis there was a strange house, overlooked by the centuries"

The scene then cuts to a forgotten, run down house, amongst towering buildings and metal supporting structures.

Note: The setting is quite dark and it looks like mist or fog surounds the strange house. The house itself seems plain but the structure itself however is quite unique, with wonky walls and a curvy roof, its almost like Rotwangs personality is expressed in the architecture.


I want to add an extension to this scene and create Rotwang's garage. To fit in with the style of this film I plan to recreate it in black and white, and focus more on the detailing, lighting and texturing of the model. I aim to bring through more of Rotwangs personality. He is a mad inventor and so I want to use this and create something which looks structurally awkward or even impossible, i.e.. something that could only have been created by someone crazy, someone like Rotwang.

Look at this scene, I will create Rotwang's garage behind his house. I don't want to create all this building surrounding Rotwang, So I think I'll work on a way to focus just on his house and the garage, perhaps by playing on the use of fog - as seen in this scene. I think  will recreate the wall and some of the metal pole things just to help establish the scene more.