Sjafnar Björgvinsson graduated from Acting last weekend

Sjafnar Björgvinsson graduated from the Acting department with his film “Kafteinn Kambur og Tryggvi blaðamaður”. We got Sjafnar to share with us his experience

What got me to apply to The Film School was a kind of calling to utilize my talents in a different kind of studies. I had been studying at the university for a year and found out that academic and book studies was not made for me. The studies were basically difficult and I needed more movement in my course work. After a short period of contemplating I went for it and applied to The Film School. I simply had to get some kind of change into my studies and movement and other types of active courses were a perfect fit. The department I chose was without hesitation Acting, because I had some experience in the field. I had before at elementary school and college done some acting and it always seemed to suit me, more than other types of studying. Acting has been a precious hobby and why not get an in depth understanding of the field? Also when you have an interest in your studies it makes it so much easier to learn and the work becomes much more fun

When it comes to talking about my graduation film, in short I made a complicated short film. It is not simple because the plot is unusual for a short film, the script is more suited for a full length feature. The plot is that a news paper reporter needs a story to write and gets help from his cousin, a headhunter. His cousin drags him along on a treasure hunt for a valuable item and together they have to tackle criminals, life threatening situations and other obstacles in their way. The film has a lot of aspects as she draws inspiration from so many different themes and film elements. It is a hot pot of films like 50´s Noir, Gangster, Punk and Industrial Sci-Fi. Therefor the preparations had to be solid to pull this off. The script went through quite a few drafts to fit a short shooting time and all crew and staff was hired as quickly as possible. That was the original plan but everything from the script writing on wards seems to have been fraught with difficulties. There were problems getting actors and things always came together late. It seemed to work in the end when we had to start shooting. Obviously things will go wrong on the shoot site, but it was fixed as soon as possible so everything worked out. There were many locations to tackle but it all came together in the end despite all the difficulties we had making this short film. And despite everything that happened, I admit that I will continue in this avenue in the future

After graduation I will be exploring other assests of the business and continue to create my own works like music videos and other sound projects. I will also be developing my acting skills. It is hard work but like my graduation project showed, there will always be problems. There is no business like the entertainment business and it is wonderful how many things you can do within it and there is so much to remember from my time at the school. There were so many moments in school to enjoy, like putting on your own play in front of a room full of people and write your own musical and sing on stage in front of an audience. A special moment I would like to share is when I and my fellow students were together on the last day of school and we had a few hours left. We put on some music and started to dance. Just dance. We made our own musical in no time, I felt such happiness being in an ordinary class room and just be dancing for the love of the art form. Poetic description perhaps but that is theater to me. When we throw off the shackles and explore the creative form. It is beautiful.The Film School has become an important and memorable part of my life and I am very grateful to have been a participant during these years while I studied there

We congratulate Sjafnar on his graduation and will excitedly be watching him in the future