RISD's film major (called Film / Animation / Video) is split into three tracks: Animation, Live-Action (narrative and documentary), and Open Media (which is experimental and installation work). I did the Live-Action track. The Animation track/department is excellent. Live-Action was pretty good when I was there and seems to have gotten better since then. I loved my professors and the classes I took. RISD is a school that cares about traditional academics - you're required to take a bunch of liberal arts classes, which they have a great offering of, or you can take some of them at Brown.
You have to apply with a portfolio of artwork because you aren't applying to a specific major and you spend your first year doing "foundation" classes, which is a mix of English and art history classes and three studio classes a semester, which are Drawing, Spatial Dynamics (basically just sculpture), and Design.
The live-action track has some great professors and pretty good equipment considering the size of the program (small). Access varies based on what year you're in (seniors get priority). I will say that when I attended, they do teach you narrative filmmaking, and you can take directing classes, it does feel more like an art school and less like a traditional film school/program. It is great for documentary filmmaking, animation, or fine art, but it's not an industry school. It was a great place to develop a style/voice, learn the basics of filmmaking, and explore different concepts. I definitely left with a sense of being a jack of all trades, which is great in some ways because it opens up a lot of weird, cool opportunities, but in other ways, you might leave feeling like you're not really prepared for any real film job.
The culture there was really serious, but really grounded. I loved going there and living in Providence.
