Profiles: Daniel Garcés | Proimágenes Colombia

Daniel “El Gato” Garcés Najar was born in Bogota. He began his music studies at the Academia Luís A. Calvo, where he also started playing the bandola, tiple, and guitar. After completing his secondary education, he began studies in jazz guitar at the Universidad Javeriana, where he discovered a passion for sound design that led him to major in sound engineering. In 2003, he received a Masters in Music, with an emphasis in sound engineering. Since then, Garcés Najar has worked as a sound designer and sound supervisor for film and television.

He has more than 50 credits on Cuban, Spanish, US, Estonian, Mexican, Panamanian, Peruvian, and Venezuelan film productions. These include the feature films Isolated (2015); Desierto (2015); Antes del fuego (2015); Blunt Force Trauma (2015); La rectora (2015); Two Women and a Cow (2015); The Seed of Silence (2015); Cañonazo tropical (2015); El cartel de la papa (2015); Out of the Dark (2014); Ciudad delirio (2014); Memorias del calavero (2014); Heaven or Hell (2014), Nacimiento (2013); De rolling por Colombia (2013); Roa (2013); The Eternal Night of the Twelve Moons (2013), winner of the best sound award at the Costa Rica International Film Festival in 2013 and the best soundtrack award at the 2014 Trieste Film Festival in Italy; Sin palabras (2012); The Snitch Cartel (2011); Undertow (2010); Blood and Rain (2009); El cielo (2009); Nochebuena (2008); El ángel del acordeón (2008); Others (2008); Dog Eat Dog (2008); Un tigre de papel (2007); Satanás (2007); Bluff (2007); Esto huele mal (2007); Personal Che (2007); and Puras joyitas (2007).

In television, he has worked on the FOX Network Group series Arrepentidos (2014) and the series by CMO Producciones and RCN Regreso a la guaca (2009). He has also taken part in the short films Od el camino (2003), Hoguera (2007); Passing By (2008); El invento (2012); Lux aeterna (2013); Signs Everywhere (2015); La imposible vida en solitario (2015); Salomé (2015); Juancho el pasajero (2015); and The Girl on the Bus (2015).

He is the CEO of the Colombian company Sonata Films SAS, dedicated to production and post-production of film, television, and web content. From July 2006 to February 2010, Garcés headed up the sound department at Efe-X SA, one of Colombia’s leading film, television, and advertising post-production companies. During this time, his pioneering work as a mixing engineer led him to create Colombia’s first film mixing stage that is certified and approved by DOLBY^®, owned by Efe-X SA.
 
While he moved forward in his professional career, Garcés also acquired more than ten years of experience teaching in public and private educational institutions, such as the Universidad Javeriana, the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, the National Learning Service (SENA), the Universidad de San Buenaventura Medellin campus, and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia Bogota campus. While working at the SENA in 2010, he joined forces with industry experts at the Ministry of Culture to develop the country’s first training program for sound technicians in film and television. The program and 15 other film industry programs are still active, and have helped bring this kind of training to numerous regions of the country.
 
In 2011, Garcés designed and developed the first course in the country on Foley art and dubbing, as part of the undergraduate program in Sound Engineering at the Universidad de San Buenaventura, Medellin campus. He also participated in the Ministry of Culture’s highly successful Imagining Our Image (INI) program, which seeks to train people just starting out as audiovisual directors and producers. He has been a frequent jury member at the Popayan Film Festival, the Bogota Short Film Festival (BOGOSHORTS), competitions held by the Colombian branch of the Audio Engineering Society, and the Bogota Audiovisual Market (BAM). He has also participated as a BAM sponsor through the company Sonata Films SAS.