I Made Another Music Video

Iʼve loved the song “FrankenX” by NILFRUITS and Harumaki Gohan since it came out. (Itʼs my favorite out of the Chimera collab album.) As the name suggests, “FrankenX” is based on Frankenstein. The song mentions Frankenstein complex, a term coined by Isaac Asimov in his Robot novel series, which refers to the fear of the mechanical creation of mankind turning against its creator. While I was reading Frankenstein, I kept on thinking “Oh my God FrankenX is so Frankenstein” and I knew if we were gonna do a choice piece, Iʼm gonna have to make a PMV of this song. And thatʼs exactly what I did. This MV conveys my personal interpretation of the relationship between Victor Frankenstein and his creation, Adam the Creature, and how they are complex, flawed individuals who share some surprisingly similar qualities (DOK Level 4).

The Process

Every great drawing starts with a crappy sketch. Well, maybe thatʼs just me. I started this project by designing Victor Frankenstein and the Creature. For the life of me, I cannot find any physical description of Victor, so his design is essentially a synthesis of my headcanon plus the popular interpretation of him with gray and black hair. You could even say itʼs a Level 4 DOK original interpretation. Anyway, I did my dull diligence with the research and gave Victor historical-accurate clothing based on various paintings and portraits from the 18th century. The website Fashion History Timeline was especially helpful in this regard. This makes me a Technologically Literate Researcher. It annoyed me that most people—even avid fans of the book—usually draw the creature with greenish-colored skin. I recalled from the book that the creature had “lustrous black” hair, and I was able to find the exact quote (DOK Level 1):

His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.

Creative liberty did win though. I didnʼt give him black lips because I didnʼt know how to draw lips, and I gave him rhombus-shaped eyes because itʼs cool. Everything else in the design is fairly book-accurate. After the character designs, I sketched some thumbnails of the MV and got to drawing.

The Frankenstein Connection

In my interpretation, the song lyrics alternate between the perspective of Victor Frankenstein and the creature (DOK Level 1). Thereʼs a lot to unpack, so Iʼll just pick three scenes from the MV to talk about

The sequence of images starting at “tes tes feelingʼs test . . .” is a synopsis of Victorʼs process of creating the creature to the creature discovering fire for the first time. The lyric “I loved you” is paired with a drawing of Victorʼs hand dissecting/sewing together the creature. After all, he did once love his creation, whose “features” he personally “selected . . . as beautiful.” The creature, during his period of self-discovery in the woods, is like a newborn curious about the world. This sentiment is captured with the drawing of his hand reaching for a body of water, which compliments the lyric “wanted to touch.”

Regarding the creation of the creature, Victorʼs feelings can be described in two words: instant regret. As soon as he finished, “the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart.” For Victor, the creature becomes his nightmare, causing sleepless nights, and the constant feeling of being watched. This is shown in the drawing of the creature standing outside of a window with the lyric “while we're still young, this is our nightmare.” To be fair, they are each othersʼ nightmare. They hate each other and are the cause of each otherʼs misery.

The last drawing (before the credits scene) is of the creatureʼs face fusing with Victor. Why? Because theyʼre weirdly similar! For one, they both put their self-interest above all else. Victor has a God complex, ‘nuff said. The creature makes a selfish request, too. The fact that he asked for a female counterpart to be built is just straight-up cruel. The creature is operating under the assumption that the female creature would willingly live peacefully with the creature in “exile” and “interchange of those sympathies necessary for [his] being.” He fails to consider how the female creature, just like himself, is a conscious individual who deserves to chart her own path. Whoʼs to say that the female wonʼt hate the Creature? He already hates his existence, and yet he subjects another sentient being to the same fate.

Reflection

Digital art and video editing—wow how technologically literate! I utilized digital technology to design a creative project. Through this project, I learned more video-editing techniques in Davinci Resolve. (I used the Fusion page for the first time.) It also made me realize that Resolve is not the right software for the kind of video editing I want to do, which is animated music videos. If thereʼs one thing to take away from my understanding of Frankenstein after this project, itʼs that Victor and the Creature really hate each other, for good reasons too. I am a staunch Victor Frankenstein appreciator ♡ If Victor has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Victor has ten fans, I am one of them. If Victor has one fan, that one is me. If Victor has no fans, that means I am no longer on this Earth.