How to bill? How to come up with the total $
Thread poster: Cristabel
Cristabel
Cristabel
United States
Local time: 04:11
Spanish to English
+ ...
Aug 18, 2016

Hello,
I am recently new to the subtitling industry and am informing myself on how this works. I understand the programs of Aegisub & Wincaps, but after I finish subtitling a video, how do I figure out how to bill /per minute? Is there a program/spreadsheet/method of doing this?
Since each frame is broken down to a few seconds of subtitling, I don't understand how one can figure out the minutes subtitled in order to bill the work completed?
I'm sure there's a simple way....b
... See more
Hello,
I am recently new to the subtitling industry and am informing myself on how this works. I understand the programs of Aegisub & Wincaps, but after I finish subtitling a video, how do I figure out how to bill /per minute? Is there a program/spreadsheet/method of doing this?
Since each frame is broken down to a few seconds of subtitling, I don't understand how one can figure out the minutes subtitled in order to bill the work completed?
I'm sure there's a simple way....but I thought I'd ask more experienced individuals regarding this question!!

Thank you for your time
Cristabel
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Kalyanasundar subramaniam
Kalyanasundar subramaniam
India
Local time: 13:41
Tamil to English
+ ...
How to bill? How to come up with the total $ Aug 19, 2016

The run time of the video or movie is taken in to account (as displayed in the video) and multiplied with the rate per minute to arrive at the total amount .It is so simple

 
Paulette Romero
Paulette Romero  Identity Verified
Colombia
Local time: 03:11
English to Spanish
+ ...
Per video minute Aug 19, 2016

I work with an agency in Spain and I get paid per video minute. It doesn't matter if you only really subtitle 50 minutes of a 60 minute video. If the whole video is 60 minutes long then that's what you put on the bill.

 
Jan Truper
Jan Truper  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 09:12
Member (2016)
English to German
... Aug 19, 2016

Unless otherwise agreed, just take a look at how long the video file is and round up to the next full minute.
For a 47:22 min long video you charge 48 price units, regardless of the number of subtitles or translated words involved.


 
Cristabel
Cristabel
United States
Local time: 04:12
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Overthinking Aug 19, 2016

Thanks everyone! I guess I was overthinking this. Since there were several scenes that didn't need subtitling, I thought I had to figure out only the "audio" that was translated. I didn't think it was simple as Ex: 60 minute video is charged as a 60 minute video!

Thank you all!
Cristabel


 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 05:12
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
You work on an average Aug 19, 2016

Cristabel wrote:

Thanks everyone! I guess I was overthinking this. Since there were several scenes that didn't need subtitling, I thought I had to figure out only the "audio" that was translated. I didn't think it was simple as Ex: 60 minute video is charged as a 60 minute video!


You'll have to WATCH the entire video to see if there's anything said that needs translation. Then you'll have to cope with varying loads of "delivery". My pet example is two Peters: The late Peter Drucker, who dragged his words, and Tom Peters, who used to talk like spitfire.

There are special cases, though. Once I had a one-hour documentary, all spoken in English, except for four minutes spoken in Portuguese, which they wanted translated for subtitles in English. I told them that they'd either pay for the 60 minutes (in which case I'd be checking the entire video to translate anything said in PT), or send me the 4-minute clip alone. Of course, they chose the second option.


Time-spotting is charged separately, of course. Some clients simply don't want it, as they may have internal staff to handle it. The Brazilian translators' syndicate had a bright idea: charging 30% of the cost of translation for it. I do it, however for MY translation, or by a few selected fellow translators who really know how to do it properly. If it's a third-party translation, I charge 50% of MY translation rate to adjust and fix as necessary.


If burning is involved, I adopt a 15-minute minimum PER ORDER (because many videos can be batch-processed together) applied on all three steps. The explanation is item #1 on this page in Portuguese. Sorry, folks, haven't had the time to make it in English yet. Either Spanish will help you to some extent there, or perhaps Google Translate will give a clue, hopefully in the right direction.


 


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How to bill? How to come up with the total $







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