Fantastic Overview Video!

This video does an awesome job of giving an overview of the special effects used in Metropolis. Though Metropolis is lastingly famous for its miniatures and the Maschinenmensch, the scope of the special effects and the incredible innovation is still mind-blowing when one watches the film. This video goes over the elements of traditional animation (as drawn by Erich Kettelhut and meticulously edited and shot frame-by-frame), the set models and miniatures (incorporating stop-motion to animate cars traveling on an expressway), and multiple exposures (shot on set and required the film to be rewound up to 30 times per scene).

As a fun fact, this film cost $200 million of today's dollars to make, nearly sending the studio into bankruptcy. In comparison, Avatar cost $237 million to make. 37,000 extras were involved, definitely influencing the cost. This was one of the first big-budget films ever made; it makes sense considering the incredible amount of work that went into each shot.