Subtitling Rates
Thread poster: Paulinho Fonseca
Paulinho Fonseca
Paulinho Fonseca  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 14:05
Member (2011)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Feb 20, 2014

Dear Friends,

I got an email from an agency asking if I would be willing to work for them.

They offered me the 'tempting amount' of US 2,50 for a translated trailer. I got to see that the amount of words is around 400 per trailer.

My face


Please, let me know what you think of that. Or my rates are out of this world or sth else is wrong with the market.

I do ap
... See more
Dear Friends,

I got an email from an agency asking if I would be willing to work for them.

They offered me the 'tempting amount' of US 2,50 for a translated trailer. I got to see that the amount of words is around 400 per trailer.

My face


Please, let me know what you think of that. Or my rates are out of this world or sth else is wrong with the market.

I do appreciate your comments.

Kind regards.

Paulinho Fonseca
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Yelisey Moroz
Yelisey Moroz  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 19:05
Member (2010)
English to Russian
+ ...
Explain that the rate is low or don't even bother Feb 20, 2014

Either they don’t know how pricing works for subtitling or they are just bottom-feeders and hope that you don’t know how it works.

 
Mireille BOULANGER
Mireille BOULANGER  Identity Verified
France
Member (2013)
English to French
No way Feb 21, 2014

Hello,
I don't know much about rates in the subtitling area but it seems that their proposal is not even to be thought of...just a "Do it yourself" answer, may be...Good luck for finding customers with fair prices...


 
Natalia Mackevich
Natalia Mackevich  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:05
English to Russian
+ ...
Inform them of the typo in their text! Feb 21, 2014

2.50 was written with a typo: the correct amount is 250! They might pay more attention next time. Or not.

 
Tim Friese
Tim Friese  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 12:05
Member (2013)
Arabic to English
+ ...
This is the problem of subtitling Feb 21, 2014

I have done some and continue to try and do some volunteer subtitling, but the rates are generally very low. I make 5-10x what I could make subtitling when I'm doing regular translation.

 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 18:05
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Typo Feb 21, 2014

Natalia Mackevich wrote:

2.50 was written with a typo: the correct amount is 250! They might pay more attention next time. Or not.


Surely, this must be a typo. 250 per video comes somewhat closer to the real value of such meticulous work. You might want to ask them whether this is a typo or not. If it isn't, well, then you've wasted some time exchanging emails.

They, might, however, offer the 2,50 per minute, since subtitling is usually paid per minute. But even then they're paying too little.


 
jbjb
jbjb  Identity Verified
Estonia
Local time: 19:05
Estonian to English
+ ...
reality Feb 22, 2014

This is what international companies regularly pay per minute in the South American area nowadays. USD 2.50-3.50 is what companies are trying to get down to.
However, trailers should be paid a regular minimum fee, even if they are one minute long, due to the hassle involved. Just as you wouldn't charge the same per word rate for a 20-word and 20,000-word translation.

In any case a set fee of at least USD 10-20 should apply for trailers, otherwise it's a rip-off. And yes, 100%
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This is what international companies regularly pay per minute in the South American area nowadays. USD 2.50-3.50 is what companies are trying to get down to.
However, trailers should be paid a regular minimum fee, even if they are one minute long, due to the hassle involved. Just as you wouldn't charge the same per word rate for a 20-word and 20,000-word translation.

In any case a set fee of at least USD 10-20 should apply for trailers, otherwise it's a rip-off. And yes, 100% of regular translators would consider USD 10-20 a rip-off, as well.
If you feel the same, subtitling is just not for you.
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Diego Sibilia
Diego Sibilia  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 18:05
English to Italian
+ ...
too low Feb 24, 2014

the rate is really too low. Anyway subtitling works do not pay so much in the end. And they are tricky.

 
Paulinho Fonseca
Paulinho Fonseca  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 14:05
Member (2011)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Your posts just guided me Feb 24, 2014

I'd like to thank everyone for time and comments.


You are right. We can make it happen, face difficult times, but being strict and focused we'll get fair prices.

Paulinho

[Edited at 2014-02-24 03:00 GMT]


 
Jing Nie
Jing Nie
China
Local time: 01:05
Member (2011)
English to Chinese
+ ...
My suggestion, never translate Films, TV series Mar 1, 2014

If you translate films, TV series, not surprisingly you will be underpaid.

In my experience, the only profitable video translation is translating commercial videos. As a freelancer in China, I always spend money on the ads, so I can get video translation projects from direct company clients. I charge USD20-25 per min for translation from English to Chinese , and adding subtitles to the video. I outsourced the transcription work, then I handle the subtitling and the hardsubing part.
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If you translate films, TV series, not surprisingly you will be underpaid.

In my experience, the only profitable video translation is translating commercial videos. As a freelancer in China, I always spend money on the ads, so I can get video translation projects from direct company clients. I charge USD20-25 per min for translation from English to Chinese , and adding subtitles to the video. I outsourced the transcription work, then I handle the subtitling and the hardsubing part. I find that most of these clients in China are satisfied with my quotation, and they think I give them a very low price, and it is true, I heard that if they find an agency to handle their commercial video clips, the price will be USD 50 - 70 per min.

During the past few years, many film companies contacted me and said that they have millions of hours of films to be translated, I was very excited at first when I got the first one of this kind of phone call, but all of them can only pay USD 0.5-1 for subtitling from English to Chinese. NOW I just refuse them directly if the potential client said he/she is from a film company.
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José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 14:05
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
Don't lose all hope Mar 1, 2014

Jing Nie wrote:

If you translate films, TV series, not surprisingly you will be underpaid.

In my experience, the only profitable video translation is translating commercial videos.

During the past few years, many film companies contacted me and said that they have millions of hours of films to be translated, I was very excited at first when I got the first one of this kind of phone call, but all of them can only pay USD 0.5-1 for subtitling from English to Chinese. NOW I just refuse them directly if the potential client said he/she is from a film company.


Like you, I also specialized in corporate video.

However now and then I get hired by a film company.

When does this happen?

After the film/TV series has been thoroughly successful, and they are preparing to release an international collection on Blu-Ray. It is when they realize that the cheap subtitles were not good enough from the start.

[Edited at 2014-03-01 15:13 GMT]


 
OffMag
OffMag  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 18:05
German to French
+ ...
Decent rates Mar 8, 2014

We are having a disagreement about decent subtitling rates in Europe here: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/soustitrage-est-art-Subtitling-is-4373081

Some think 10€/min (time-coding included) is ok
Others think it should be 20-25€/min for this job.

Care to join the discussion? Here or in the Linkedin group?


 
Sylvano
Sylvano
Local time: 18:05
English to French
You're not fair... Mar 9, 2014

...in the way you present things, Nathalie.
Working for a theater release, TV, the dvd market or institutional clients is not the same at all. Working with an international mass-market company or a national producer/distributor/audiovisual company is not the same at all. In France, working for a public national TV network, a private paying channel or a small cable channel is not the same thing at all. You can't apply the same rate to all clients. I get 25 euros per minute with institutiona
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...in the way you present things, Nathalie.
Working for a theater release, TV, the dvd market or institutional clients is not the same at all. Working with an international mass-market company or a national producer/distributor/audiovisual company is not the same at all. In France, working for a public national TV network, a private paying channel or a small cable channel is not the same thing at all. You can't apply the same rate to all clients. I get 25 euros per minute with institutional and corporate clients, I exceptionnaly go as low as 10 euros per minute with a small company publishing a small quantity of low-cost dvds for a direct-to-video B-movie... Two really different markets.
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Andriy Bublikov
Andriy Bublikov  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 19:05
French to Russian
+ ...

Moderator of this forum
Maybe this information will help Mar 10, 2014

Maybe this information will help: http://www.snac.fr/actus.htm#db

 


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