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What is a reasonable rate for translating subtitles?
Thread poster: 564354352 (X)
Jean Chao
Jean Chao  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:38
English to Chinese
+ ...
90 minutes movie took me 3-4 full working days Jun 29, 2012

Hi Gitte,

You've got a very good point about subtitle translation quality requiring even higher translation skills because a lot of dialogues involve culture nuances, especially American slangs and cultural usages. It's very easy to make mistakes without the first-hand experience of the source language. I caught a lot of ridiculous translation mistakes on my flight back to Taiwan, but I guess it's just me, a professional translator. Other viewers are either too ignorant or too
... See more
Hi Gitte,

You've got a very good point about subtitle translation quality requiring even higher translation skills because a lot of dialogues involve culture nuances, especially American slangs and cultural usages. It's very easy to make mistakes without the first-hand experience of the source language. I caught a lot of ridiculous translation mistakes on my flight back to Taiwan, but I guess it's just me, a professional translator. Other viewers are either too ignorant or too untrained to notice them. With the cost-down pressure in this gloomy economy, it seems like a lot of agencies have only one concern in mind: how to drive the cost down even further. Quality is not secondary, comparing to cost. As Thayenga said, more and more subtitling companies are outsourcing in Asia or expecting all subtitle translators to accept "Asian rates".

It took me 3-4 working days (about 20-24 work hours) to translate a 2011 film starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher with a run-time of about 90 minutes. It has a lot of out-of-context and one-to-two-words dialogues that required me to go back to that particular movie spot and try to figure out from the "vibes" of the that particular moment. It's not as straight-forward as ordinary translation. As much as I love the feeling of creativity juice flowing when translating subtitles, I have to draw the line because as a professional translator I need to do a better calculation and allocate my precious resources to more lucrative business.
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Jean Chao
Jean Chao  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:38
English to Chinese
+ ...
Sorry, it was a 90-minute documentary--even more challenging Jun 29, 2012

The film I translated was not the movie itself, but a documentary about how they made that movie. Documentary is notorious for its lengthy script lines and going back and forth between the talking heads and movie scenes.

 
564354352 (X)
564354352 (X)  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 13:38
Danish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Impossible to set a 'general' rate, then Jun 29, 2012

Hi Jean

I am beginning to think that a good working relationship would be to agree that the translator should be paid based on the amount of time she (or he ) spends on the actual job. In 'normal' translation, nobody would accept to be paid based on the amount of pages, as a page could contain anything from 1 to 600 words (or even more, if the print is very small).

For instance, I just watched 'The Golde
... See more
Hi Jean

I am beginning to think that a good working relationship would be to agree that the translator should be paid based on the amount of time she (or he ) spends on the actual job. In 'normal' translation, nobody would accept to be paid based on the amount of pages, as a page could contain anything from 1 to 600 words (or even more, if the print is very small).

For instance, I just watched 'The Golden Child', starring Eddie Murphy, and paid more attention to the amount of dialogue in this film than I usually do, and I noticed that there were lengthy sections without any dialogue at all, just a lot of action, so, in this particular film, the 'by running minute' rate would definitely work out much better than the non-stop-talking documentaries that you mention.

There's a lot to learn about this business.
Strangely, subtitling was not even touch on when I studied translation...

Gitte
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Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 13:38
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
A fairer rate Nov 12, 2014

Gitte Hovedskov, MCIL wrote:

Hi Jean

I am beginning to think that a good working relationship would be to agree that the translator should be paid based on the amount of time she (or he ) spends on the actual job. In 'normal' translation, nobody would accept to be paid based on the amount of pages, as a page could contain anything from 1 to 600 words (or even more, if the print is very small).

For instance, I just watched 'The Golden Child', starring Eddie Murphy, and paid more attention to the amount of dialogue in this film than I usually do, and I noticed that there were lengthy sections without any dialogue at all, just a lot of action, so, in this particular film, the 'by running minute' rate would definitely work out much better than the non-stop-talking documentaries that you mention.

Gitte


Perhaps it would be a fairer rate to pay per source word instead of per audio minute... just like a "regular" translation.

Just recently I translated a video and found that some "minutes" contained about 20 - 30 words, while other "cramped in" nearly 70 words. Consequently, the per-audio-minute-rate once paid for the translation of 20 - 30 word (okay) and then the same amount for nearly 70 words (not okay).

IMO subtitle translation should be paid just like regular translations. After all, translating a word is... translating a word.


Kawthar Busari
 
Ana Carla Guimarães
Ana Carla Guimarães  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 23:38
English to Portuguese
Rates for 2015 in the US Mar 23, 2015

Hi everyone,
I see this forum started a couple of years ago, so I would like to know how much the US companies are paying per minute for subtitling. I do EN>PT>EN, but I just want to have an idea of the minimum and maximum rate you can get, of course, depending on your experience.

Thanks
Ana


 
Andrea Halbritter
Andrea Halbritter  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 13:38
French to German
+ ...
I charge per word Mar 23, 2015

So far I have only down a few subtitling, but what I did I charged by the number of words just like a translation.

 
Bernhard Sulzer
Bernhard Sulzer  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:38
English to German
+ ...
Some info Mar 24, 2015

Andrea Halbritter wrote:

So far I have only down a few subtitling, but what I did I charged by the number of words just like a translation.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtitle_(captioning)
"Subtitle translation is sometimes very different from the translation of written text. Usually, during the process of creating subtitles for a film or television program, the picture and each sentence of the audio are analyzed by the subtitle translator; also, the subtitle translator may or may not have access to a written transcript of the dialog. Especially in the field of commercial subtitles, the subtitle translator often interprets what is meant, rather than translating the manner in which the dialog is stated; that is, the meaning is more important than the form—the audience does not always appreciate this, as it can be frustrating for people who are familiar with some of the spoken language; spoken language may contain verbal padding or culturally implied meanings that cannot be conveyed in the written subtitles. Also, the subtitle translator may also condense the dialog to achieve an acceptable reading speed, whereby purpose is more important than form." (Unquote)

Demands can vary. Good if you have a transcript. But you are going to have to work with the film. There might be certain software and other requirements.
The charge must be appropriate for the professional work you are providing.



[Edited at 2015-03-24 03:53 GMT]


 
Bernhard Sulzer
Bernhard Sulzer  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:38
English to German
+ ...
Do it right Mar 24, 2015

Ana Guimaraes wrote:

Hi everyone,
I see this forum started a couple of years ago, so I would like to know how much the US companies are paying per minute for subtitling. I do EN>PT>EN, but I just want to have an idea of the minimum and maximum rate you can get, of course, depending on your experience.

Thanks
Ana


If you do a job and you do it correctly, you deserve adequate remuneration. Don't work for rock bottom prices because you feel as a newcomer you don't deserve more. Working for inadequate rates is just wrong.

[Edited at 2015-03-25 00:06 GMT]


Louise Péron
 
Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 18:08
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
You probably received a printed script to translate Mar 24, 2015

Andrea Halbritter wrote:

So far I have only down a few subtitling, but what I did I charged by the number of words just like a translation.


This would work only if you were provided with a printed script to translate.

In most subtitle translation, that is not how things work. You watch a movie or video, and as it progresses, you translated the dialogue and speech in it. It is an immensely challenging and strenuous job and poor paying.

A single minute of movie/video can take five to ten times that long to do, as often you will need to rewind and re-listen to a dialogue to get it right. Speech is always faster than typing, and often in movies/videos more than one person is speaking, thus making it doubly fast, or typing doubly slow.

Sometimes, you need to first transcribe the video and then translate it as a second step. At other times, you need to insert time-stamps to your lines so that they synchronize correctly with what is said on the screen. There are special softwares to help you with this, but if it needs to be done using Word or Excel, inserting the timestamps correctly itself can take as much time as the translation part.

Apart from these technical issues, the linguistic issues are equally challenging. Speech can be hyperbolic, culturally nuanced, in a language or dialect unfamiliar to you, or just mumbled and unclear. You have to struggle along as best as you can. Also, your translation would need to sound like speech, which would require a lot of adaptation, rewriting and creative writing.

So in most cases, subtitle translation is an unrewarding enterprise except for those who revel in it.

As far are rate is concerned, I usually apply the thumb rule of 1 : 5, that is, 1 minute of video equals 5 minutes of translation time. So a 60 minute video would be charged at 5 hours of my normal hourly rate. It doesn't add to much, and you can earn much more doing normal translation and save yourself much hassle in the bargain.

The thing to remember is to always do a small sample translation of the movie/video and use that to arrive at a quote. The sample should contain portions picked at random from several places of the movie/video, so that it is representative. Some portions of the movie/video could be mostly silent and others chockful with dialogue.


 
Anna Brown
Anna Brown  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:38
Spanish to English
+ ...
Good point Apr 10, 2015

Bernhard Sulzer wrote:

If you do a job and you do it correctly, you deserve adequate remuneration. Don't work for rock bottom prices because you feel as a newcomer you don't deserve more. Working for inadequate rates is just wrong.

[Edited at 2015-03-25 00:06 GMT]


Very well said, however as a newcomer it's hard to know what prices are reasonable. Could you give us a general range of what a newcomer should charge?


 
Bernhard Sulzer
Bernhard Sulzer  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:38
English to German
+ ...
Example Apr 10, 2015

Anna Brown wrote:

Bernhard Sulzer wrote:

If you do a job and you do it correctly, you deserve adequate remuneration. Don't work for rock bottom prices because you feel as a newcomer you don't deserve more. Working for inadequate rates is just wrong.

[Edited at 2015-03-25 00:06 GMT]


Very well said, however as a newcomer it's hard to know what prices are reasonable. Could you give us a general range of what a newcomer should charge?


One way to go about it is this: based on your review of the material - and you need to have that - you can estimate, to the best of your abilities, how much work you are going to have to put into this; in other words, how many hours it is going to take you to do everything. Then you calculate a total price based on your hourly rate - you can check the Proz.com translation rate page for hourly rate suggestions (keep in mind even the standard rates suggested there are rather low, but it's a start).

I give you an example:

Movie short: twenty minutes of film.
The director supplied me with a script and the actual video (online access)
I worked with both. First I read the script and then watched the movie a couple of times.
He had supplied me with a time coded script, which showed exactly how much time I had for the words that I needed to translate.


Left Column:
Timecode Main Dialogue (original)
01:01:43:08 Mental agility exists for us

Right Column:
Simultaneous Dialogue or Important On-Screen Text (translation)
Geistige Gewandtheit existiert für uns



Timecode: Main Dialogue (original)
01:01:45:09 that we can recognize dangers


Simultaneous Dialogue or Important On-Screen Text (translation)
damit wir Gefahren erkennen,

As you can see above, I needed to make sure that the translation of "Mental agility exists for us" ("Geistige Gewandtheit existiert für uns") was placed in time between 01:01:43:08 and 01:01:45:09. In other words, the film would cut to the next clip at 01:01:45:09. That means people need to read and understand the text during that time. That seems trivial, but it's not. If the translated text is much longer than the speech of the characters, it becomes a lot to read and little time to understand. So, in other words, it's not as difficult as dubbing, when you need to match the "mouth movements" of the actors as closely as possible, but the rule of thumb here will also be as close to the length of the original dialogue as possible. As you can see, that's more than just translating. You've got to figure that in your price. And you have to watch the movie several times. Go back and forth per clip over and over.

I sent that to the director. The next step was I got the movie back with the German subtitles input. I then went from clip to clip, checking if everything was put with the right clip/scene, if I could read the text and was able to focus on/understand and enjoy the movie. Some things needed to be shortened or changed to improve the understanding.

This is an example. I changed the dialogue completely so I don't infringe any copyright.


[Edited at 2015-04-10 18:57 GMT]


 
Andriy Bublikov
Andriy Bublikov  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 14:38
French to Russian
+ ...

Moderator of this forum
How to calculate you rates including subtitles translation and subtitling rates Apr 10, 2015

It is easy to calculate using Excel but it is necessary to know the rate for translation and the turnaround.

There are two different jobs:

1) Translating of .srt file, for example.
The rate depends of ordinary translation rate per word and can be equal or a little bigger than translating rate per word. It is it is easy to calculate. This rate can be converted to rate per minute but it depends of your turnaround.

2) Subtitling that means subtitles cr
... See more
It is easy to calculate using Excel but it is necessary to know the rate for translation and the turnaround.

There are two different jobs:

1) Translating of .srt file, for example.
The rate depends of ordinary translation rate per word and can be equal or a little bigger than translating rate per word. It is it is easy to calculate. This rate can be converted to rate per minute but it depends of your turnaround.

2) Subtitling that means subtitles creation = translation without script (on fly translation) that means audio track translation + time coding for synchronizing video and audio.

The rate can be calculated only per minute. Because this rate depends of your turnaround and video quality.

So this rate should be bigger than the rate for subtitles translation because it is not only translation but also audio track translation + time coding for synchronizing video and audio (translation + transcription).

To calculate it is necessary to know: the rates on the market + translation rate + turnaround.

Here is an example of rates calculation using Excel according to the translation rate:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vw7fjj9vqs1u45z/Rates_explanation_3.mp4?dl=0
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Louise Péron
 
Anna Brown
Anna Brown  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:38
Spanish to English
+ ...
Thanks! Apr 17, 2015

Bernhard Sulzer wrote:

Anna Brown wrote:

Bernhard Sulzer wrote:

If you do a job and you do it correctly, you deserve adequate remuneration. Don't work for rock bottom prices because you feel as a newcomer you don't deserve more. Working for inadequate rates is just wrong.

[Edited at 2015-03-25 00:06 GMT]


Very well said, however as a newcomer it's hard to know what prices are reasonable. Could you give us a general range of what a newcomer should charge?


One way to go about it is this: based on your review of the material - and you need to have that - you can estimate, to the best of your abilities, how much work you are going to have to put into this; in other words, how many hours it is going to take you to do everything. Then you calculate a total price based on your hourly rate - you can check the Proz.com translation rate page for hourly rate suggestions (keep in mind even the standard rates suggested there are rather low, but it's a start).

I give you an example:

Movie short: twenty minutes of film.
The director supplied me with a script and the actual video (online access)
I worked with both. First I read the script and then watched the movie a couple of times.
He had supplied me with a time coded script, which showed exactly how much time I had for the words that I needed to translate.


Left Column:
Timecode Main Dialogue (original)
01:01:43:08 Mental agility exists for us

Right Column:
Simultaneous Dialogue or Important On-Screen Text (translation)
Geistige Gewandtheit existiert für uns



Timecode: Main Dialogue (original)
01:01:45:09 that we can recognize dangers


Simultaneous Dialogue or Important On-Screen Text (translation)
damit wir Gefahren erkennen,

As you can see above, I needed to make sure that the translation of "Mental agility exists for us" ("Geistige Gewandtheit existiert für uns") was placed in time between 01:01:43:08 and 01:01:45:09. In other words, the film would cut to the next clip at 01:01:45:09. That means people need to read and understand the text during that time. That seems trivial, but it's not. If the translated text is much longer than the speech of the characters, it becomes a lot to read and little time to understand. So, in other words, it's not as difficult as dubbing, when you need to match the "mouth movements" of the actors as closely as possible, but the rule of thumb here will also be as close to the length of the original dialogue as possible. As you can see, that's more than just translating. You've got to figure that in your price. And you have to watch the movie several times. Go back and forth per clip over and over.

I sent that to the director. The next step was I got the movie back with the German subtitles input. I then went from clip to clip, checking if everything was put with the right clip/scene, if I could read the text and was able to focus on/understand and enjoy the movie. Some things needed to be shortened or changed to improve the understanding.

This is an example. I changed the dialogue completely so I don't infringe any copyright.


[Edited at 2015-04-10 18:57 GMT]


Thanks for this example, it really helps give me an idea of what to charge. I really appreciate it.


 
Anna Brown
Anna Brown  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:38
Spanish to English
+ ...
Great Video Apr 17, 2015

Andriy Bublikov wrote:

It is easy to calculate using Excel but it is necessary to know the rate for translation and the turnaround.

There are two different jobs:

1) Translating of .srt file, for example.
The rate depends of ordinary translation rate per word and can be equal or a little bigger than translating rate per word. It is it is easy to calculate. This rate can be converted to rate per minute but it depends of your turnaround.

2) Subtitling that means subtitles creation = translation without script (on fly translation) that means audio track translation + time coding for synchronizing video and audio.

The rate can be calculated only per minute. Because this rate depends of your turnaround and video quality.

So this rate should be bigger than the rate for subtitles translation because it is not only translation but also audio track translation + time coding for synchronizing video and audio (translation + transcription).

To calculate it is necessary to know: the rates on the market + translation rate + turnaround.

Here is an example of rates calculation using Excel according to the translation rate:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vw7fjj9vqs1u45z/Rates_explanation_3.mp4?dl=0




Thanks for breaking this down a bit. So far I've only done the job of translating .srt files or timing someone else's translation, but not doing both together.

The video is helpful, thanks again.


 
MissMat85
MissMat85
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:38
English to Polish
Tricky Mar 9, 2016

I find it very tricky to work my rates out as I'm only starting my translation journey. However, I agree that you can't undersell yourself.

Thank you everyone for the input.


 
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