Forum: Subtitling
Topic: Netflix Hermes test
Poster: Michele Vartuli
Post title: Everyone's guessing...
Hello, I've taken the test and I guess my 10 business days are up or will be soon, but I haven't got my results yet and I doubt they'll be made available shortly. They are obviously swamped with tests right now.
Congratulations, Magdalena, on creating this thread. Since everyone's favorite pastime while biting their nails in wait for the blessed results seems to be guesswork and speculation, I'll throw in my two cents.
About system requirements: I think the 20 mB connection requirement just indicates what the slowest possible connection in the US currently is; I've taken the test on Windows 7 with an (allegedly) 5 mB connection and it went fine. Actually, the Hermes platform detects your speed when you register and prevents you from doing so if your connection is too slow (I know this because a friend of mine tried it over a 1 mB connection and got a message of refusal). And I don't think you'll need a superfast ISP to work for Netflix either. It's pretty obvious that the platform where we did the subtitling test IS the work platform itself. You get a small video, subtitle editing and checking capabilities, and that's all you need. When I read the guidelines on the Netflix site I was so scared, I thought I'd have to compile an .xml document with that complicated header and tags and all; I've even copied the sample they posted in case I'd have to do that. Then I saw that nice subtitle editor that even warns you when you exceed the character-per-line and character-per-second limits, and also that the test just consisted of translating subtitles in English, eliminating the task of subtitle division, and I discovered a new meaning for the expression "easy as pie".
About the test itself: I got the football video. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. So what if American football terms don't translate in your language? Big deal! Guess how you say "touchdown" in Portuguese? Yeah, you guessed it! It's "touchdown"! When a term doesn't translate, your work is already done! No need to re-invent the wheel, Einsteins. And, frankly, if anyone thinks that translating a 3-minute clip in 40 minutes doesn't represent realistic work conditions... maybe that person should find employment in some other field. Just how much time will you need to translate a feature-length movie, then? You may be willing to work at a snail's pace to perfect your "masterpiece" because you're getting paid top dollar, but I don't think Netflix is planning on sitting and waiting a fortnight for every job. Subtitling for video was fast & furious work in the days of VHS (I know because I've been doing that for more than 25 years); imagine, then, how time constraints must've tightened in the VOD era.
About compensation: A friend of mine who's a "vendor" of translation services told me there are no vendors here in Brazil working directly for Netflix. Foreign vendors, instead, hire local "talent" to do Portuguese subtitles, and he said they pay 2 dollars per minute out of the 9 dollars Netflix pays them. That's outrageous, bordering on a scam. If Netflix intends to cut out that kind of middlemen, I say good riddance to them. This friend of mine tried to make his company become a vendor for Netflix, but he said he got a 40-plus-page form to fill in with so many requirements (security, technical, legal and so on) that he simply gave up. I guess that's because they trust these vendors with high-quality master video files, as José Henrique said, which I think it's pretty stupid, actually. They should downgrade the video quality and pass work copies to their vendors.
Another guess of mine about compensation: I think they'll probably edit the videos and/or pay only for the parts of the video that have any dialogue in them. Can you picture (no pun intended) Netflix paying those rates for the 40 minutes Tom Hanks doesn't utter a single word in "Cast Away"?
And a final, unrelated observation... I wonder why all the girl translators in this thread are gorgeous?
Topic: Netflix Hermes test
Poster: Michele Vartuli
Post title: Everyone's guessing...
Hello, I've taken the test and I guess my 10 business days are up or will be soon, but I haven't got my results yet and I doubt they'll be made available shortly. They are obviously swamped with tests right now.
Congratulations, Magdalena, on creating this thread. Since everyone's favorite pastime while biting their nails in wait for the blessed results seems to be guesswork and speculation, I'll throw in my two cents.
About system requirements: I think the 20 mB connection requirement just indicates what the slowest possible connection in the US currently is; I've taken the test on Windows 7 with an (allegedly) 5 mB connection and it went fine. Actually, the Hermes platform detects your speed when you register and prevents you from doing so if your connection is too slow (I know this because a friend of mine tried it over a 1 mB connection and got a message of refusal). And I don't think you'll need a superfast ISP to work for Netflix either. It's pretty obvious that the platform where we did the subtitling test IS the work platform itself. You get a small video, subtitle editing and checking capabilities, and that's all you need. When I read the guidelines on the Netflix site I was so scared, I thought I'd have to compile an .xml document with that complicated header and tags and all; I've even copied the sample they posted in case I'd have to do that. Then I saw that nice subtitle editor that even warns you when you exceed the character-per-line and character-per-second limits, and also that the test just consisted of translating subtitles in English, eliminating the task of subtitle division, and I discovered a new meaning for the expression "easy as pie".
About the test itself: I got the football video. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. So what if American football terms don't translate in your language? Big deal! Guess how you say "touchdown" in Portuguese? Yeah, you guessed it! It's "touchdown"! When a term doesn't translate, your work is already done! No need to re-invent the wheel, Einsteins. And, frankly, if anyone thinks that translating a 3-minute clip in 40 minutes doesn't represent realistic work conditions... maybe that person should find employment in some other field. Just how much time will you need to translate a feature-length movie, then? You may be willing to work at a snail's pace to perfect your "masterpiece" because you're getting paid top dollar, but I don't think Netflix is planning on sitting and waiting a fortnight for every job. Subtitling for video was fast & furious work in the days of VHS (I know because I've been doing that for more than 25 years); imagine, then, how time constraints must've tightened in the VOD era.
About compensation: A friend of mine who's a "vendor" of translation services told me there are no vendors here in Brazil working directly for Netflix. Foreign vendors, instead, hire local "talent" to do Portuguese subtitles, and he said they pay 2 dollars per minute out of the 9 dollars Netflix pays them. That's outrageous, bordering on a scam. If Netflix intends to cut out that kind of middlemen, I say good riddance to them. This friend of mine tried to make his company become a vendor for Netflix, but he said he got a 40-plus-page form to fill in with so many requirements (security, technical, legal and so on) that he simply gave up. I guess that's because they trust these vendors with high-quality master video files, as José Henrique said, which I think it's pretty stupid, actually. They should downgrade the video quality and pass work copies to their vendors.
Another guess of mine about compensation: I think they'll probably edit the videos and/or pay only for the parts of the video that have any dialogue in them. Can you picture (no pun intended) Netflix paying those rates for the 40 minutes Tom Hanks doesn't utter a single word in "Cast Away"?
And a final, unrelated observation... I wonder why all the girl translators in this thread are gorgeous?