What is SWAN?

Screenwriting and Animation (SWAN) is Morgan's cinematic arts and sciences major and the most technology immersive program in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA). Much more than just a film major, SWAN lays the groundwork for evolving artists, filmmakers, and content producers to forge career paths in entertainment, education, science, and business at a time when visual storytelling is the dominant narrative form of the 21st Century.

Filmmaker and Professor, Zeinabu Irene Davis, visits SWAN to screen her documentary, 'Spirits of Rebellion: Black Film at UCLA'.

Zeinabu Irene Davis is an educator and award winning filmmaker, joining SWAN to discuss film narrative formatting, independant filmmaking, finance, casting, and more! Join SWAN as we welcome Zeinabu to Morgan and screen her powerful and educational documentary on the LA Rebellion titled, 'Spirits of Rebelion: Black Cinema at UCLA." 

 6:15 PM                                                                Thursday April 3rd                                                              Parkway Theatre 1

Organized and generously sponsored by the SWAN Visiting Artist Program and Morgan State University, featuring a post-screening Q&A with director Stanley Nelson"Featuring explosive performances by James Brown, Parliament Funkadelic, Fela Kuti, Labelle, and many others, Stanley Nelson’s syncopated history of the worldwide cultural phenomenon is of a piece with all his films, among them Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution and Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, interrogating the intersection between culture and politics.

Tracing the roots of this underappreciated music genre to West Africa and American folk, gospel, and jazz, and quite significantly to the Black Power movement, Nelson finds a powerful strain of Black independence that sets funk apart from more assimilationist traditions like doo-wop and Motown soul.

Indeed, had it not been for funk’s infectiously danceable, bass-driven rhythms and intricate chord changes—to say nothing of the spellbindingly sweat-inducing, occasionally even otherworldly onstage presence of a George Clinton or a Sly Stone—we may well not have had Prince, David Byrne, Rakim, or entire musical movements since." MoMA

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The SWAN major has three concentrations

Computer Animation, Film + Television Screenwriting, and Integrated Media Writing

• The Computer Animation concentration requires courses in 2D and 3D animation, motion design, storyboarding, web design, multimedia scripting, and games.
• The Integrated Media Writing (Screenwriting) and Animation concentration requires courses in drawing and illustration, courses in graphic comics, and more graphics art based practice in computer animation and the media arts.
• The Film and Television Writing (Screenwriting) concentration requires greater immersion in applied theory and practice in writing and content production for film/TV and multimedia, including documentary and drama.

All concentrations include:

• Film studies
• Computer Animation
• IAR/VR immersive storytelling
• Visual storytelling and writing
• Game art and design
• Screenwriting
• Graphic comics
• Entrepreneurship and independent filmmaking
• Ethical business practices for the industry
• Fluency in writing and creative expression
• Production field experience, and post-production workflow and assembly
• Majors take two computer science courses
• Producing webisodes, short films and documentaries, as well as informational and corporate videos
• Introductory animation workshop, and introductory and intermediate editing courses

SWAN Override Form

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Alumni Spotlight: Alicia Agrimonte

Alicia Agrimonte is a 2015 Graduate of Morgan State's SWAN Program. Alicia Agrimonte worked for Morgan Freeman's company, Revelations Entertaiment, as an executive for several years after her graduation. She currently works at MITU and is an aspiring director and actress. 

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Alumni Spotlight: Leroy Marshall

Leroy Marshall graduated in the class of 2020! He currently works at Disney Animation.