drosselmeyer

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malymin
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covok
@covok

RWBY Season 5 - Redux - A Really Cool Fan Edit

The Series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOCKFkmZczmDmjqAcfYDmXgEkG-PGIc7W

The Behind The Scenes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOCKFkmZczmD78ZPM722jHspyiK7AhNn8&si=GPvD9tkQyf4oXzRB

I thought I'd mention this to everyone. It is called RWBY Season 5 Redux.

The tl;dr is that it is a fan edit of RWBY Season 5 by two amateur filmmakers that extensively cuts down and redits the season. They reached out to Roosterteeth, the show's owners, and got approval to release the fan edit as long as it wasn't being charged for. Each week will air a new season. There will be 10. 7 have been released so far.

To expand on things, RWBY Season 5 is considered by far as the absolute worst season of the show. It was considered full of head scratching moments, it was very slow, and generally just seemed like a huge drop on quality. This fan edit features no new material or changes to the plot. It takes what already exists (including the trailer footage and character shorts) and extensively redits and reorders the story to great effect. The plot flows more naturally and hits with a bigger omph. They recolored the entire season to remove the washed out effect. They even did while shit like cut out redundant or pointless dialog midsentence and seemingly cut down on the overwrought writing of the season.

The effect is this hits really hard. It's actually kind of shocking what editing can do. The story and characters and everything are the same. But the story just feels way fucking better just by cutting some scenes, reareanging others, and cutting out some of the dialog. It's wild.

malymin
@malymin

I'm not a RWBY fan but this is fascinating. I would love to see other fandoms attempt similar projects. Lots of people daydream about "fixing" canon when its writing falls apart, but it's a rare thing to actually see a true fan-canon get made!

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malymin
@malymin

Oh this fascinates me. I'm not in RWBY fandom, but I love to hear about fan-made projects to actually create new texts - fan-remakes, fan-sequels, etc - that aren't tethered to the monetary incentives and economic pressures that shape "official" new canons. I think it's something radical that fandom as a subculture has the potential to do, but has largely been unexplored - especially as fandom has been increasingly co-opted by the corporate interests that own the source texts.

Do you think you could mention some specific examples of how the fan-cut improves the source material? I love it when an official adaptation re-arranges scenes or events in a way that actually improves the narrative, so I'm doubly interested in a fan-made edit doing similarly.

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covok
@covok

Well, first off, the creator responded to one of my statements in his official Q/A. Apparently, Roosterteeth just has a fan content policy which boils down to "as long as its free, you can make it, as long as we're attributed." So, that's cool.

As for changes, they are so myraid that it's better to watch their breakdown videos. In short, they didn't want to change anything about the story but present it differently. It's a fan edit.

So, for example, scenes are rearranged. In the original season 5, the battle at Blake's house happened over 3 episodes with A LOT of cutaway scenes. In redux, they do everything in episode 8. This makes the fight flow better with less constant interruptions.

They also add in some scenes from other media to make better narratives. In season 5, the leader of the White Fang (who is referenced prior) appears for the first time only to die, meaning it had no weight. In season 6, they made an OVA about her relationship with Adam. Redux added the 10 minute OVA to the episode, especially since the OVA hints at Adam's betrayal. Which makes the episode now have this narrative arc where you see their relationship from their first meeting and then have it end with him betraying her and taking over the organization. It makes it have A LOT more impact and makes you care about it a lot more.

They use a lot of editing to reduce redundant dialog. They don't just cut out entire lines, but they also cut out mid-line redunancy. In the first episode of season 5, they waste a lot of time recapping what happened in season 3 with awkward expository dialog. They cut "around it." Not only, cutting lines, but using a fad to seamlessly cut out some of it midline to only tell the important information.

They also take some time to address fan complaints. The fan bemoaned anger at Ozpin giving Raven and Crow the ability to become birds is edited around and changed at annoyance at the weirdness of it all and how tired they are with the world getting ever more complicated. They also fix Cinder's weird motivation dissonance where she seems to care about getting revenge on Ruby but then ignores her entirely in the final battle. They cut out some references to it then add in a nice flashback to it to make it seem like she is just obsessed with power. They also edit an earlier scene with her and Salem to imply Salem is picking up that Cinder is becoming power hungry. All of which makes her a more consistent character, especially when later seasons are considered.

They also reedited sound effects, music, and VFX to improve production values.

As I said, they breakdown every episode and their reasons for every change and what they changed. Watch those and you'll get a better idea since they changed A LOT while keeping the goal of "make no changes that alter the plot or make inconsistencies with later seasons" at heart.

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