What do "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, "Good Will Hunting" director Gus Van Sant and Academy Award-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson have in common? They are all alums of the Rhode Island School of Design's Film/Animation/Video program. With a curriculum that incorporates field trips to places like the Sundance Film Festival, the Ottawa International Animation Festival and the set of NBC's "Law and Order," the program offers students unique training in both live action and animated media.
Housed in RISD's Auditorium Building on North Main Street, with offices in the Market House next-door, the department consists of 115 undergraduates, five full-time professors and between 12 and 15 part-time adjunct professors, said Peter O'Neill, a film professor in the final year of a five-year term as head of the FAV department. In recent years, about 20 students in each class have focused on animation, and 17 or 18 have chosen to pursue live action filmmaking, he said.
Though the full-time professors generally have broad knowledge in at least one of the three departmental disciplines, adjunct professors offer specialized instruction in specific techniques such as lighting or sound production, O'Neill said. FAV professors have a range of backgrounds, but he said many have worked in independent, experimental or documentary filmmaking.
Amy Kravitz, a professor of animation, said the "hybridized" nature of the department draws professors with diverse talents and experiences. "(Film, animation and video) are actually three distinct disciplines, but here they're all grouped into one department," which distinguishes RISD's program from those at other institutions, Kravitz said.
After completing the foundation studies courses required of all RISD freshmen, students entering the FAV program spend their sophomore year taking classes in each of the three departmental disciplines before choosing to pursue a live action or animation curriculum. But O'Neill said for some students, this transition is "fluid."
"Some students kind of blend (live action and animation), which is great," O'Neill said. "In a lot of films that are being made now at the highest level, you see a lot of blending." In particular, he said, students interested in the field of special effects, which "overlaps into both areas," may choose to study both disciplines.
According to Kravitz, exposing students to each of the three departmental disciplines gives them a more comprehensive understanding of "the visual world" and of the area in which they eventually choose to specialize. "Each aspect of the program requires a different kind of thinking and a different kind of work process," she said. "They augment each other."
Colin Healey, a RISD senior studying live-action film, said he enjoyed learning about each of the three departmental disciplines. "A lot of stuff I learned in animation that I didn't know about before has become really important in my live action work," he said, citing pixilation techniques that he studied in his sophomore animation course and has since incorporated into live-action projects.
In addition to being situated within a multidisciplinary department, RISD's film program is also distinguished by its unique setting. "We're a film program in an art school," O'Neill said, noting that this contrasts with major film programs such as those at New York University or the University of Southern California.
At RISD, students can study other visual arts media, which O'Neill said may "buttress" the work they are doing in the FAV department. Animation students might also study illustration, he said, or live action film students might supplement their work by studying photography. "I think students come here to study film who want to be in an art school environment."
Healey said that was a factor in his decision to attend RISD. "It was important to me that I be around other fine artists like painters and sculptors," he said. "That's stuff that I did a lot of in high school and that I care about."
Still, Healey said he's been frustrated at times with the liberal arts training he's received. "I love being around artists," he said. "But art about art gets kind of boring after a while."
In particular, Healey said he's struggled with the task of crafting stories for narrative film projects. "In retrospect, I think it would have been really good for me to have been doing more creative writing classes and more theater," he said. "We just don't have that much of that here (at RISD)."
It's exactly that kind of concern that O'Neill said he hopes the newly approved Brown-RISD dual degree program will address. After an agreement was signed in September by Brown President Ruth Simmons and RISD President Roger Mandle, the program will launch in the fall of 2008, allowing 20 students per year to earn both a bachelor of fine arts from RISD and a bachelor's degree from Brown.
Kravitz said the dual degree program also has the potential to facilitate less obvious connections. "You have resources at both institutions that really complement each other," she said. "There may be really unusual combinations of interests that work together really well."
Hannah Schafer '09 agreed that an interdisciplinary approach is useful in filmmaking. "Even if you wanted to do microbiology at Brown and do film at RISD, I think that would be amazing because you would have a completely different perspective."
Schafer, who is currently enrolled in O'Neill's introductory filmmaking course at RISD, first came into contact with the FAV program last year when she landed a lead role in RISD student Rachel Israel's senior thesis film. Though the filmmaking class is the first course she's taken in the FAV department, she said she "absolutely" plans to take more, praising the course's "hands-on" approach and access to professional production and editing equipment.
"They kind of just throw you into it," Schafer said. "And you learn it really quickly."
Students have long had the option of taking classes at either of the two institutions, but for many students the two school's differing calendars have made cross-registration difficult. Healey said he was never able to fit Brown courses into his schedule.
In the coming months, the FAV program will undergo a thorough review required of all RISD departments every 10 years and conducted on a rotating basis. "It's a self-evaluating process as well as an external evaluation," Kravitz said.
Faculty will consider how the three departmental disciplines came to be grouped into a single department and assess whether this is effective, Kravitz said. They will address the ways in which teaching has changed since the onset of digital technology and look at future goals, particularly with regard to the rise of high definition equipment.
In March, a visiting committee comprised of professors from other institutions and knowledgeable professionals in related fields will evaluate all aspects of the FAV department, observing classes and meeting with students and faculty. "We hope that this evaluation process will help us understand what we're doing right and how we can improve," Kravitz said.
