Forum: Subtitling
Topic: Japanese-to-English Subtiling Rates
Poster: Novian Cahyadi
Post title: You're luckier than I am
In my language pair, I was offered $1/video-minute rate to translate subtitles for every 60 minutes runtime, with deadline in 24 hours.
In case anyone doesn't know, subtitling is not easy. Especially if we were tasked to create one completely from scratch*, we're practically doing 3 jobs at once (timecoding, transcribing, and translating). On top of that, we can't just use any word as we please. We are typically under strict requirements in the form of CPL and CPS limits, among others. So we have to be more thoughtful about our word selections.
Yet even among translation communities, including ProZ.com, sometimes I feel like we subtitlers are being treated as 2nd class (or even 3rd class) citizens. I can't say I'm surprised seeing some clients and agencies are treating us almost like slaves. But maybe I'm just being cranky.
Then again, the rates have been taking a nosedive for everyone. Doesn't matter which field you're in, it's getting more difficult to make a decent living by doing translation jobs, in general. You'll need to know where to look if you don't want to play the "race to the bottom" game. But still, the number of those who are willing to pay respectable rates is not plenty. It's not going to be enough for everyone. I blame machine translations for this.
*I've been using this phrase way too often. I need a new vocabulary.
[Edited at 2021-12-12 14:26 GMT]
Topic: Japanese-to-English Subtiling Rates
Poster: Novian Cahyadi
Post title: You're luckier than I am
In my language pair, I was offered $1/video-minute rate to translate subtitles for every 60 minutes runtime, with deadline in 24 hours.
In case anyone doesn't know, subtitling is not easy. Especially if we were tasked to create one completely from scratch*, we're practically doing 3 jobs at once (timecoding, transcribing, and translating). On top of that, we can't just use any word as we please. We are typically under strict requirements in the form of CPL and CPS limits, among others. So we have to be more thoughtful about our word selections.
Yet even among translation communities, including ProZ.com, sometimes I feel like we subtitlers are being treated as 2nd class (or even 3rd class) citizens. I can't say I'm surprised seeing some clients and agencies are treating us almost like slaves. But maybe I'm just being cranky.
Then again, the rates have been taking a nosedive for everyone. Doesn't matter which field you're in, it's getting more difficult to make a decent living by doing translation jobs, in general. You'll need to know where to look if you don't want to play the "race to the bottom" game. But still, the number of those who are willing to pay respectable rates is not plenty. It's not going to be enough for everyone. I blame machine translations for this.
*I've been using this phrase way too often. I need a new vocabulary.
[Edited at 2021-12-12 14:26 GMT]