five minutes with
SAMUEL PLEITGEN Publisher
Tom Hilditch tom@fastmedia.com.hk
The music producer turned voice actor talks to Robyn Or about working with Sting and what’s on his Christmas list.
Editorial
Editor-in-Chief Shreena Patel shreena@fastmedia.com.hk Contributing Editor Callum Wiggins callum@fastmedia.com.hk Annie Wong annie@fastmedia.com.hk Carolynne Dear carolynne@fastmedia.com.hk Senior Staff Writer Eric Ho eric@fastmedia.com.hk
Design
Design Manager Cindy Suen cindy@fastmedia.com.hk Graphic Designer Anna Schulteisz anna@fastmedia.com.hk
Thanks to
Adele Brunner Amanda Sheppard Claire Billson Dr Pauline Taylor Doan Ho Ellie Kehoe Graham Turner Kim Buggins Nicole Roquel Paul Zimmerman Robyn Or Sarah Brennan Tracey Read
Published by
Fast Media Floor LG1, 222 Queens Road Central, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
Illustration by Nicole Roquel
Samuel is a former band member of “MIT” (Made in Taiwan), where he played bass guitar.
I am an English speaking voice actor. You can hear my voice in TV commercials of major brands like Canon, Nikon, Cathay Pacific, Warner Brothers, National Geographic, CNN and more. I used to be a music producer - I’ve worked with British pop bands, UB40 and Sting. A few years ago, I was working with a client at my studio in Shek O and the voiceover talent didn’t show up. The client liked my voice so I had a go. Later, I was introduced to a production house in Chai Wan for casting. Working with Sting and his band was a great pleasure. They were in Hong Kong as part of their “Mercury Falling” tour. I engineered several live broadcasts from a studio in Hong
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Kong to radio stations in the US, including the Howard Stern show in New York. It was so much fun while we were waiting for our time slots we had a lot of time to play around and it ended up being a bit of a jam session between all of us. Sting is a really interesting person to spend time with, a philosophical and extremely well read man who is very much into yoga and meditation. Our conversations were never boring and, of course, his skills as musician blew me away. My first proper voice acting job was a four-word recording which I finished in 5 minutes. It paid me enough to cover the next month’s rent. Then I made a demo tape and sent it to advertising companies and production houses in Hong Kong.
As a voice actor, you need to be imaginative and flexible. Clients don’t always know what they are looking for. My most unforgettable voice acting job was when the script for a large event at the Wanchai Convention Centre didn’t arrive in time from the US. Instead of recording the five-page script, I had to read it live to the audience, standing behind a curtain while taking cues from at least five different people, none of whom really knew what was going on. It came so close to being a disaster. I was born in Hong Kong but went to boarding school in India when I was 13. My school was in the Himalayas - that’s where I found my passion for music.