Forum: Subtitling
Topic: Rates for subtitling work
Poster: José Henrique Lamensdorf
Post title: Cryptic message
[quote]HUSEYIN DERYA UN wrote:
Pricing: Cost of Survival vs Freebee for doing something you enjoy?[/quote]
I think I didn't understand the message clearly.
Anyway I think pricing is a matter of cost/benefit on both sides.
"Rates" are merely a convenience for informing the buyer how much they'll spend per unit they'll get. The cost-wise burden of uncertainty is on the vendor's side, while the burden of quality stays on the buyer's side.
Let's take an analogy... a taxi meter. It charges the same per mile/km, regardless of if it's a steep uphill (fuel) winding (labor) road or a straight, smooth downhill stretch. It also charges the same per minute of idling time, regardless of whether it's in a traffic jam (engine running = fuel consumption) or a parking lot (engine off; labor taking a nap) while the client shops for groceries, whatever.
The buyer will choose to buy from the lowest rate they can get which - at the same time - offers an acceptable cost/benefit ratio. In other words, some point on the continuum between cheap crap and expensive gold, in the hope the chosen vendor is not too far from the line between these extremes, which is not always necessarily straight.
The vendor/translator/subtitle must offer a cost/benefit ratio that is high enough to make it worth their while, and also low enough to take up most of their working time.
This is the delicate rates balance in any professional endeavor. Fun should not be an essential condition in a job, because if it were, the incumbent would stop working any time when the fun were removed.
Many translators dream about getting paid to translate and subtitle those movies they love to watch. Quite honestly, these are not so many, and a subtitler must face (and be willing to do) countless truly disgusting - and often tiresome - flicks to get one or another that is really pleasurable.
Topic: Rates for subtitling work
Poster: José Henrique Lamensdorf
Post title: Cryptic message
[quote]HUSEYIN DERYA UN wrote:
Pricing: Cost of Survival vs Freebee for doing something you enjoy?[/quote]
I think I didn't understand the message clearly.
Anyway I think pricing is a matter of cost/benefit on both sides.
"Rates" are merely a convenience for informing the buyer how much they'll spend per unit they'll get. The cost-wise burden of uncertainty is on the vendor's side, while the burden of quality stays on the buyer's side.
Let's take an analogy... a taxi meter. It charges the same per mile/km, regardless of if it's a steep uphill (fuel) winding (labor) road or a straight, smooth downhill stretch. It also charges the same per minute of idling time, regardless of whether it's in a traffic jam (engine running = fuel consumption) or a parking lot (engine off; labor taking a nap) while the client shops for groceries, whatever.
The buyer will choose to buy from the lowest rate they can get which - at the same time - offers an acceptable cost/benefit ratio. In other words, some point on the continuum between cheap crap and expensive gold, in the hope the chosen vendor is not too far from the line between these extremes, which is not always necessarily straight.
The vendor/translator/subtitle must offer a cost/benefit ratio that is high enough to make it worth their while, and also low enough to take up most of their working time.
This is the delicate rates balance in any professional endeavor. Fun should not be an essential condition in a job, because if it were, the incumbent would stop working any time when the fun were removed.
Many translators dream about getting paid to translate and subtitle those movies they love to watch. Quite honestly, these are not so many, and a subtitler must face (and be willing to do) countless truly disgusting - and often tiresome - flicks to get one or another that is really pleasurable.