| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Are rates for subtitling offered that are better compared to translation? Thread poster: Fredrik Pettersson
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| Fredrik, would you mind telling us the per-minute rate they offered? | Nov 22, 2013 |
Hi Fredrik,
Would you mind telling us the per-minute rate they offered?
| | | | Fredrik Pettersson 
Hong Kong
Local time: 12:19
Member (2009)
English to Swedish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | I have one too low rate and one reasonable | Nov 23, 2013 |
The rate for this company I did the test for was reasonable, around 5 USD per runtime minute. That would work. But the company I have done several subtitling jobs for offer a far too low rate, around 2.5-3 USD per runtime minute. However, I accepted some jobs from them because it was fun: I watched the movies, good movies, and really some variation to the usual technical contents I translate. But for that rate 2.5-3 USD per runtime minute, I can only work if I have nothing else for the moment. A... See more The rate for this company I did the test for was reasonable, around 5 USD per runtime minute. That would work. But the company I have done several subtitling jobs for offer a far too low rate, around 2.5-3 USD per runtime minute. However, I accepted some jobs from them because it was fun: I watched the movies, good movies, and really some variation to the usual technical contents I translate. But for that rate 2.5-3 USD per runtime minute, I can only work if I have nothing else for the moment. Absolute minimum acceptable is 5 USD per runtime minute. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I'm as confused as others | Nov 25, 2013 |
I did some subtitling last week and found that I note down all of these:
1. Watch everything - 1 min per 1 min of audio/video
2. Transcribe the dialogue - 4 min per 1 min of audio/video (speech rate is quite fast)
3. Translate it - Depends on the number of words in phase two, I read that average speech rate is 150 words per minute, the video I did was 250/min. So for 1 min audio/video, if it's a normal translation, I will need an hour to translate.
4. Edit - Adjusting tra... See more I did some subtitling last week and found that I note down all of these:
1. Watch everything - 1 min per 1 min of audio/video
2. Transcribe the dialogue - 4 min per 1 min of audio/video (speech rate is quite fast)
3. Translate it - Depends on the number of words in phase two, I read that average speech rate is 150 words per minute, the video I did was 250/min. So for 1 min audio/video, if it's a normal translation, I will need an hour to translate.
4. Edit - Adjusting translations into subtitle units of 2 lines, up to 36 char per line. 2 min per 1 minute audio/video
5. Timecode it - I automate this but it was off on 2-3 subtitles, so in total it was 2 min per 1 min of audio
6. Final check, 1 min per 1 min of audio/video
That's like 1 hour and 10 minutes per minute of audio/video.
Am I just being too careful?
I also read that you don't have to transcribe, which I understand, if the speaker is just going babbling non-sense, I would just summarize it.
From this software description, they said that professional transcribe+timecode itself is $11.25/minute of audio/video. That still doesn't add up with their translation fee $0.13-0.16/word.
That's $30.75 per minute of video, assuming the speech rate is 150 words per minute.
And they offer 2 cents for machine translation. :|
This company quote a 3-minute video is $200-300 for the first language, it means that for the next language it can be less. That's $66/minute of video.
With all those numbers above in my head, I think yes, $5/minute is too low.
If we were to calculate translation alone (no transcribe+timecoding): $5/150 words = $0.03
(Of course if there is silence for a minute or two, it's a free $5! Yay!)
So, companies are taking $30-66 per minute, should I just accept $5? ▲ Collapse
| | | | jbjb
Estonia
Local time: 13:19
Estonian to English
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In your case the problem is that you are an absolute beginner with subtitling.
It's like giving someone who has never used Trados a job that requires using Trados in a hardcore way (translation memories and all that) - it would take them days to familiarise themselves with the software and translate two pages of text.
They would write in this forum and wonder how people work for USD 0.10 per word because they would have to charge USD 2.00 per word and it would still be on par with t... See more In your case the problem is that you are an absolute beginner with subtitling.
It's like giving someone who has never used Trados a job that requires using Trados in a hardcore way (translation memories and all that) - it would take them days to familiarise themselves with the software and translate two pages of text.
They would write in this forum and wonder how people work for USD 0.10 per word because they would have to charge USD 2.00 per word and it would still be on par with the minimum wage.
In your case, phase by phase
1. Very good.
2. No professional subtitle translator would transcribe text before translating. It's just a waste of time.
3. Professional translation speed is around 30-60 minutes for 5 minutes of video, depending on how difficult the text is.
4. Professionally this is done immediately during the translation process. You don't translate text and then divide it into subtitles, you immediately translate the text as subtitles.
5. Very good.
6. Very good.
Translating and timecoding 1 minute of video should take around 5-10 minutes, usually towards the lower end.
And no, USD 66 per minute is not a normal rate in subtitling for large projects. Competition is fierce and profit margins are volume-based and very low. If the translator gets USD 5 per minute, the company would charge the client maybe 20-30% more. And there would be companies with even lower margins. ▲ Collapse
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| Thank you for the insight, jbjb | Nov 27, 2013 |
This is a valuable input.
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