Forum: Subtitling
Topic: Subtitling test
Poster: José Henrique Lamensdorf
Post title: Most of it depends on the clientele
[quote]IT Pros Subs wrote:
I don't use Wincaps and I don't like agencies imposing one software over others, but there are in fact things you can't do with free tools like the ones you mentioned e.g. putting subtitles on top wherever needed and exporting files ready for video editing suites such as Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere just to mention a few. If you're in professional subtitling, you'll have to go with professional software at some point. That doesn't mean Wincaps is the only one. In fact I don't even think it's the most functional...[/quote]
Subtitling is often seen as one whole homogeneous industry. Such an assertion resembles looking at "medicine" without differentiating GPs from surgeons, researchers, etc., thinking that a family doctor can handle it all, just like a translator/subtitler covering all possible cases.
I cover different subtitling specialties, perhaps like the army doctor taken with the troops to some faraway country, so I've seen some differences. Let's leave medicine aside and check a few quite different cases.
[b]Subtitling "corporate video"[/b]
The client here is often the local subsidiary of a global corporation whose business dos NOT include video production. Actually, they don't know squat about video beyond watching.
In most cases, their WHQ commissioned their PR or advertising agency, who commissioned a video producer to make am institutional, product launch, or training video. All a subsidiary overseas will have is the finished video for local use, subtitled (or sometimes dubbed) in the local language.
Their requests usually involve a complete job, i.e pristine finished subtitled videos, for specific or general use. They may ask for things like, among others:
- FHD (subtitled) video for showing on a wall-sized screen at trade fairs
- HD (subtitled) video to make available on their web site via YouTube, Vimeo or otherwise
- SD video for download and/or on [i]authored[/i] interactive DVDs for distribution
- editing to replace onscreen titles, charts, etc. with their translations
- editing to replace PPT-like screens with their translations
- just the subtitles on a SRT file for a skilled operator to play the video with them using VideoLAN VLC
- just the subtitles on SRT/SSA/ASS files to upload to YouTube
Of course, as long as they get what they want, they couldn't care less about what software is used.
For the subtitling translator working in this market:
- It is very rare to have a script available
- It is normal to ask the client to review the subtitles before finishing
- Minor changes after final delivery are requested now and then
- Usually there is NOT a steady demand for this kind of work from the same client
- Quality must be spotless
- Rates can be considerably higher than for other markets
[b]Small video producers[/b]
These will often require only the translation for subtitling. Everything else will be handled by their internal salaried staff.
I use Sony Vegas for video editing, a "cheaper" version of it. The top version of the same program does automatic subtitling from a SRT-like file, but it costs AFAICR 6x more. I tried subtitling with this cheaper version by overlaying a chroma-key "blank" video with the subtitles, and results were awful.
I asked most of these clients I've had how they do subtitling, and they told me they put the subs one by one, as overlaid text, using Final Cut or Adobe Premiere. My take is that they also have the "cheaper" versions - if they exist - of these programs.
Their budget is usually small, they don't do ADR, so the direct sound is often terrible... and we have to translate that!
They requests are usually for translation into a foreign language, for distribution overseas, so they need grammar-wise perfect text. They usually don't understand the target language.
For the subtitling translator working in this market:
- There is nobody to help you with target-language terminology
- The script is available sometimes, but it does NOT often match the actual final edit
- Turnaround time is often close to or beyond impossible
- There is some pressure to lower rates, but not beyond the point where it impairs quality
- They usually request your output in plain text on a Word DOC file, sometimes Excel XLS, so the software you use is irrelevant
- Demand is completely erratic, usually small
[b]Large video distributors[/b]
These are the BIG clients, having constant demand, and therefore many try to push rates down.
The BEST among them are global operators, aware of local circumstances, so these will be more flexible to shorten payment terms when the translator is located in countries where interest rates are relatively very high (e.g. Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Ukraine, Belarus).
There are always the bottom-feeders who adopt a one-rate-fits-all stance, and long payment terms. They believe that insisting in demanding high quality over time will eventually turn fansubbers into professional subtitlers.
As these will be more often than not subtitling the same videos in umpteen languages, they prefer to save by using templates, which are pre-timed, pre-spotted transcripts in the source language. All the translator has to do is to translate.
The BEST ones will have invested in developing their own software, which is often compatible with popular subtitle file formats, or conversion methods that will allow translators to work with the market-standard MS-Word.
The so-so ones will demand the use of pricey software, capable of generating subtitles in unique proprietary formats, having built-in quality-ensuring features, so that they can merely dump the files they get into their system, and the result will be okay to a certain level. Such software also handles with relative ease subtitle displacement all over the screen, if required.
It's a matter of calculating the cost/benefit of investing in such pricey software, considering the demand volume and the rates offered. It is worth mentioning that if any subtitling company tries to SELL their software up-front, without any commitment to the payback it will yield (i.e. demand), it is an obvious scam.
Last but not least, there are other types of video clientele around.