Forum: Subtitling
Topic: Netflix Hermes test
Poster: José Henrique Lamensdorf
Post title: And the Oscar for making sense goes to...
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
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.[/quote]
Apparently most bilinguals in the global online community took this test.
All we can hope for is that it doesn't end like the last Proz translation contest.
We can have some reassurance from the fact that Netflix NEEDS these subtitles.
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
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.[/quote]
Perhaps not. I wouldn't know about other countries, but the standard Internet connection contract in Brazil is that the subscriber will always have AT LEAST 10% of the agreed speed. IOW - at least in Brazil - a 20 MBPS connection means that the user will always have (unless the connection is down) 2 MPBS or more.
Translating jittery video is definitely not a worthy endeavor.
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
About the test itself: I got the football video. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. [/quote]
A translator must level - at least - with the intended audience. A highly technical video intended for brain surgeons will require a specialized translator, of course. If the football video is intended for average TV spectators, any translator worth his salt should be able to figure it out properly.
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
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? [/quote]
Considering the quantity of people everywhere accepting US 1-2¢/word to translate text, too many think they can wing it on subtitling, just to make a few bucks. From some low-quality subtitles they see now and then on cable TV, they figure that any amateur-level work should suffice. Supposedly (and hopefully) not true.
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
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.[/quote]
Maybe I should have figured that out. It clarifies the main goal in this process.
Netflix's history - albeit short - shows that it is a learning company. They seem to be quick in finding what doesn't work well and readjusting the organization to fix it.
Apparently they realized that the chain of supply in subtitling is getting longer and longer, and that there may be too many middlemen making money on the way, without adding any value whatsoever.
The low rate paid to the actual services provider (translator) jeopardizes quality, and it fails to lower costs at the receiving end. Netflix is trying to cut through the middlemen jungle to get at least the quality they pay for.
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
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.[/quote]
This reaffirms what I've said so far. As the Netflix vendor told me that downgrading videos (for security, i.e. added value for Netflix) before relaying them to translators takes up too much computer time, these in-betweens are trying to merely push files back and forth.
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
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"?[/quote]
I don't think so. The cost of editing out the no-dialog shots and later re-timing the subtitles to fit the whole movie would be much, much higher than paying for the translation of the entire playing time.
I had one case like the one you describe. It was a one-hour company documentary, which included a continuous 4-minute testimonial from a user to be subtitled. I told them to clip that part before having me do it, and later reinsert it; much cheaper this way. Pruning 20 secs here, 40 secs there, more 5 secs elsewhere a few hundred times in, say, a 90-min flick, and later editing them back and re-timing is definitely not worth the labor cost, no matter how cheap they can get it.
Topic: Netflix Hermes test
Poster: José Henrique Lamensdorf
Post title: And the Oscar for making sense goes to...
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
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.[/quote]
Apparently most bilinguals in the global online community took this test.
All we can hope for is that it doesn't end like the last Proz translation contest.
We can have some reassurance from the fact that Netflix NEEDS these subtitles.
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
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.[/quote]
Perhaps not. I wouldn't know about other countries, but the standard Internet connection contract in Brazil is that the subscriber will always have AT LEAST 10% of the agreed speed. IOW - at least in Brazil - a 20 MBPS connection means that the user will always have (unless the connection is down) 2 MPBS or more.
Translating jittery video is definitely not a worthy endeavor.
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
About the test itself: I got the football video. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. [/quote]
A translator must level - at least - with the intended audience. A highly technical video intended for brain surgeons will require a specialized translator, of course. If the football video is intended for average TV spectators, any translator worth his salt should be able to figure it out properly.
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
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? [/quote]
Considering the quantity of people everywhere accepting US 1-2¢/word to translate text, too many think they can wing it on subtitling, just to make a few bucks. From some low-quality subtitles they see now and then on cable TV, they figure that any amateur-level work should suffice. Supposedly (and hopefully) not true.
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
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.[/quote]
Maybe I should have figured that out. It clarifies the main goal in this process.
Netflix's history - albeit short - shows that it is a learning company. They seem to be quick in finding what doesn't work well and readjusting the organization to fix it.
Apparently they realized that the chain of supply in subtitling is getting longer and longer, and that there may be too many middlemen making money on the way, without adding any value whatsoever.
The low rate paid to the actual services provider (translator) jeopardizes quality, and it fails to lower costs at the receiving end. Netflix is trying to cut through the middlemen jungle to get at least the quality they pay for.
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
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.[/quote]
This reaffirms what I've said so far. As the Netflix vendor told me that downgrading videos (for security, i.e. added value for Netflix) before relaying them to translators takes up too much computer time, these in-betweens are trying to merely push files back and forth.
[quote]Michele Vartuli wrote:
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"?[/quote]
I don't think so. The cost of editing out the no-dialog shots and later re-timing the subtitles to fit the whole movie would be much, much higher than paying for the translation of the entire playing time.
I had one case like the one you describe. It was a one-hour company documentary, which included a continuous 4-minute testimonial from a user to be subtitled. I told them to clip that part before having me do it, and later reinsert it; much cheaper this way. Pruning 20 secs here, 40 secs there, more 5 secs elsewhere a few hundred times in, say, a 90-min flick, and later editing them back and re-timing is definitely not worth the labor cost, no matter how cheap they can get it.
