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Rate per source subtitle?
Thread poster: Inez Ulrich
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Nikki Scott-Despaigne  Identity Verified
Local time: 22:00
French to English
What is a reasonable rate? Sep 13, 2017

A reasonable rate in country A can be an excellent rate in country B and a terrible rate in country C.
If you do not compare like with like, a comparison is not useful.


 
Josephine Cassar
Josephine Cassar  Identity Verified
Malta
Local time: 22:00
Member (2012)
English to Maltese
+ ...
How do you calculate rate per minute for a quote? Sep 13, 2017

Is it a rate per minute of the video sent or rate per minute that one spends translating? Translating one minute of the video can still take quite a lot of time besides the consideration of where a certain rate is judged excellent in country A and a terrible rate in country B

 
Jean Dimitriadis
Jean Dimitriadis  Identity Verified
English to French
+ ...
Video minute Sep 13, 2017

Per video minute.

If it’s a new client/agency, before quoting, you can always ask to see the source beforehand (video, sample, script, original subs, etc.), just as you would for a translation job.

But subtitling is different to translation in many respects, in my book, getting specific training, experience and skills is highly recommended.

I think 6:1 ratio is for seasoned subtitlers.

As for what is a reasonable price, I’m not sure I would
... See more
Per video minute.

If it’s a new client/agency, before quoting, you can always ask to see the source beforehand (video, sample, script, original subs, etc.), just as you would for a translation job.

But subtitling is different to translation in many respects, in my book, getting specific training, experience and skills is highly recommended.

I think 6:1 ratio is for seasoned subtitlers.

As for what is a reasonable price, I’m not sure I would charge less or more depending on the country I live in, although I guess someone living in a low-cost country would have more leeway when it comes to competitiveness (outsourcers use this too). It’s more related to the language pair or the buyer’s country (or business model)…

Jean
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Véronique Fourneaux
Véronique Fourneaux  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 22:00
English to French
Transcription and translating subs Oct 5, 2017

Hi everybody,
I usually translate subs from a template but now someone asks me my rate per minute for (quote) "Listen and translate videos in a Word file."
How much could I ask, given that I won't know if I will have problems with specific accents, too fast talking etcetera?
Somebody to help me please?
Thanks a lot,

Véronique


 
Peter Bak
Peter Bak
Denmark
Local time: 22:00
English to Danish
+ ...
That actually makes perfect sense when you think about it... Aug 8, 2022

jbjb wrote:

Basically - as a rate for a German company in Germany it is not exceptional but definitely solid. Maybe not that good for theatrical or very talkative things but a solid rate for normal average subtitles.
Also depends on what you are expected to do with the source subtitles - just translate or also merge/split/modify timings.

Clients in the industry prefer a per minute rate because then you know at once how much it will cost to translate a 100 minute film - let's say 6 euro per minute comes to 600 euro. When payment is by subtitle, it can be 500 subtitles for a horror film (225 euro) or 1,500 subtitles for a talkative drama (675 euro). Clients usually don't like it when translation costs can vary 2-3 times, therefore 90% of the time the industry works on per minute rates.
When translators are offered a per subtitle rate, it is either a flexible client, a trade union supported "fair rate" by a national broadcaster, or a company who gets a per minute rate from the client but believes it is more useful to pay per subtitle to the translators (horror films, music shows where lyrics are not translated etc) because they know the subtitle count will not be high for whatever reason.

That actually makes alot of sense when you think about it. It is 100% fair.
Imagine you got paid by the page and not by the word in translation. An instruction manual with alot of pages and alot of big pictures would be a very sweet deal in that case, compared to 2 pages chock full of words, which would probably be a nice thing for them.

The price should reflect the work. If it takes 3 hours to translate 30 minutes of horror, then it should reflect those 3 hours. If it takes 7 hours to translate 30 minutes of a reality show drama with constant talking, then it should reflect those 7 hours.

Imagine that special effects specialists or make up artists were paid the same for 30 minutes of horror as for 30 minutes of a reality show drama. Unbelievable!
It isn't fair that a horror show should pay 2-3x as much for the same subtitles as for a reality show drama.

[Edited at 2022-08-08 07:30 GMT]


 
Melina Kajander
Melina Kajander
Finland
English to Finnish
+ ...
* Mar 15, 2023

It used to be the "normal" rate, to be paid per source subtitle, in the early 2000's (at least for the companies I worked for); now, per program minute is the industry standard. And I can understand why, for reasons specified below.


Peter Bak wrote:
The price should reflect the work. If it takes 3 hours to translate 30 minutes of horror, then it should reflect those 3 hours. If it takes 7 hours to translate 30 minutes of a reality show drama with constant talking, then it should reflect those 7 hours.

Imagine that special effects specialists or make up artists were paid the same for 30 minutes of horror as for 30 minutes of a reality show drama. Unbelievable!
It isn't fair that a horror show should pay 2-3x as much for the same subtitles as for a reality show drama.


Well, "fair" or not, per program minute is now the industry standard, and there's not much we can do about it (And the work of special effects specialists or make up artists is very different from ours, so not sure it makes any sense to compare those.) It can of course be annoying, when you have a shorter file with loads of subtitles, but then there's compensation with longer files that have relatively fewer subtitles. And this way of payment actually makes more sense, IMO, also as in (post-translation) editing & revising, subtitles are very often added or deleted, sometimes loads of them, so if one was paid by subtitle, the payment wouldn't be constant, one would never know how much one gets at the end, when accepting a job!

[Edited at 2023-03-15 16:18 GMT]

[Edited at 2023-03-15 16:19 GMT]


 
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Rate per source subtitle?







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