AudioVisual Communication and Metaverse with Benoit Galera

Benoit Galera is a subtle and strong presence at the same time with a surprising artistic side who likes to create things that are linked to image and sound. A life journey from opera solist to art technician, a journey worth following.His company, Media Art Design was partner for the event created and organized by Stylezza, Food Influencers Awards.

Benoit Galera, can you tell us a few words about yourself and your background?

I started my activity by singing at the Opera, in soloist roles, in my twenties in Montpellier. But I realized that I was not the best Opera singer, I was good but not exceptional. I rather watched the directors a lot and that was what interested me. After the Bac, I followed the visual arts with the desire to be a composer of film music. It was very mixed up in my head, but I knew I wanted to be in that environment. In the arts...Yes, but without being considered as an artist but rather as an art technician. I did two years of visual arts, graphic studies, then after I went to film school to become a film music composer. I turned out badly, I became a director. (laughs) With a musical and graphic background!

The aesthetics of sound and image that have always carried me. I made a lot of short films in school and I became a scenographic designer at the National Theater of Nice where I created audio-visual sets in interaction with the actors. We met people including a young man who played in bars in Nice and we fell in love with his music. We set up a company with a friend of mine, a collective for a subsidiary of my father's company to be able to make his clip and it was Charlie Holliston. We made his first clip which became a planetary hit. It was a drawn clip. We always had in mind the idea of ​​doing things differently with a more poetic, imaginative side. We also worked in the political field or for centers or associations or public works which are very down to earth.

In fact, what does audio-visual communication mean?

That means that we don't do press relations, we don't do paper communication but we do everything that moves, everything we see or hear, whether it's the creation of a logo or the creation of a 3D universe or soon, the metaverse thanks to the special effects we have. We capture the real world and the virtual world too.

Do you think the Cote d'Azur market is dynamic enough?

With the internet, we need images and sound. It is a field in full expansion, we have more and more competition but also demands. Instagram, Tik Tok, websites, B2B, everyone communicates through images.

In audio-visual communication, do you have a project that is close to your heart?

The advantage is that I am passionate. There are projects that interest me less than others, but either I make a film on the devaluation of waste or on the Vallée des Merveilles on engravings or for the next car that will come out of a very big manufacturer or on an automated plane, all these projects fascinated me. There are always challenges, there are always discoveries to be made. I don't like working on the same thing all the time.

How do you see yourself with the new technologies arriving in the field?

I ran after it for a long time. I learned a lot, it's an open door to a new way of doing things. I've been doing this job for twenty years and it forces us to reinvent ourselves all the time because there are young people arriving and leaving school and challenging us which is great. I love it because it forces me to reinvent myself, to see the world differently.

And with the coming Metaverse?

Our company is created by two: me who comes from image, graphic design, drawing, painting, music and Haider who set up our office in Montreal who came from 3D computer graphics, 3D animation of movie. We have this 3D modeling branch, so we are fully into the Metaverse. I confess that I am not sure that the Metaverse is successful, it remains to be seen.We have already done 3D immersion but we have not already implemented it in the current Metaverse.How do you see yourself in visual communication in a few years?There are always interns with us and I see myself taking on a lot of young people who are leaving their studies and learning what they learned at school. I still see myself evolving, being a communication student.

Do you have a message for our readers?

I understand that many people think that many things are wrong in the world but I must admit that I always see the good side of things and I am very optimistic for the future because we have always settled things. We all have the ability to see the bright side of things.

Interview by Andra Oprea