Pricing and time required for translating a video Thread poster: rubi275madri
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A client has asked me to give him an estimate for translating a 2-hour video (of an academic conference) from Spanish into English. There is no transcript, so I will essentially need to be transcribing and translating at the same time, though neither my client nor their client seems to understand this. Because I do not have any idea of what the conference is about, nor if there is any discipline-specific language I will have to research, I have estimated on the high side.
This was ... See more A client has asked me to give him an estimate for translating a 2-hour video (of an academic conference) from Spanish into English. There is no transcript, so I will essentially need to be transcribing and translating at the same time, though neither my client nor their client seems to understand this. Because I do not have any idea of what the conference is about, nor if there is any discipline-specific language I will have to research, I have estimated on the high side.
This was my first proposal: 120 minutes of video x 10 euros/minute of original video = 1,200 euros.
The client has replied that this is too high. I told him that I would see if I could lower it a bit, but that it is going to be quite a lot of work, and I have no idea what I am actually bidding on.
Any guidance you could provide would be extremely helpful -- I could really use this work, but I am not willing to do it for poverty wages. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Thayenga 
Germany
Local time: 09:21
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| Customer vs. translator | May 4, 2022 |
10 Euros per audio minute is a decent price which, however, hardly anybody is wiling to pay, especially not any agencies.
The offers for a per audio minute rate range from USD 1.50 - 4.50, while the Euro rate ranged from 2.50 to 5.00 per audio minute. This means that your potential customer charges his/her client at least twice as much as s/he is willing to pay you for your services.
Either you come to terms with your potential customer, or you won't get the project. ... See more 10 Euros per audio minute is a decent price which, however, hardly anybody is wiling to pay, especially not any agencies.
The offers for a per audio minute rate range from USD 1.50 - 4.50, while the Euro rate ranged from 2.50 to 5.00 per audio minute. This means that your potential customer charges his/her client at least twice as much as s/he is willing to pay you for your services.
Either you come to terms with your potential customer, or you won't get the project. This sounds cold, but that's the way the industry of (mainly) agencies works. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Clarification: Pricing and time required for translating a video | May 4, 2022 |
My client is not in fact an agency, but an audio-visual services company which will be adding the subtitles to the video. They are not responsible for paying the VAT on my earnings, nor are they going to pay any other taxes on my behalf.
I'm going to go back to my client with the offer of a 20% discount, but that's as low as I'm willing to go. Will let you all know how it turns out.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:21
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| Ask to see the video first | May 4, 2022 |
Ask to see the video first. I would not go "blind" into a job like this.
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Arianne Farah
Canada
Local time: 03:21
Member (2008)
English to French
| The amount of work may surprise you... | May 4, 2022 |
Tom in London wrote:
Ask to see the video first. I would not go "blind" into a job like this.
From "the Internets" : At a typical speaking pace of 130 words per minute, a one hour speech will be about 7,800 words.
So a transcription - say that takes you 6 hours because you don't have a pedal or much experience - plus a 15,600 word translation - it's about 7 days' work. And this is with zero time coding or cutting the translation to fit into subtitles...
| | | | | Proceed with caution | May 4, 2022 |
rubi275madri wrote:
The client has replied that this is too high.
How would they know how much time you will need to deliver a proper job? It is impossible to anticipate the amount of time needed based only on the length of a video. Can't they provide you with a video sample? Even 10/min may be way too short. Without any idea on how densely the speaker speaks, how strong his/her Andalu cerrao or foreign accent is and how specialised the subject matter is, I'd suggest you don't cave in, unless you have to. Replaying video sequences tens of times to ensure what you heard is actually what is mumbled just when a fighter plane takes off from the airbase next door can take an insane amount of time. And then you may have to summarize the translation to ensure it reads comfortably if it is to be used as subtitles.
Expect the worst and hope for the best. If the best does occur and you overestimated the amount of work, you may consider to offer a discount.
I got an enquiry from a agency prospect some years ago, but they had the source text already transcribed. As they insisted on a price per minute of video, I simply worked it out from my source word rate and the wordcount from the transcribed files. I came up with 10 euros/min as well (agency rate, 0.11 or 0.12/source word), and of course I didn't get the job. From this experience, there may be well over 10kwords in a 2-hour video, and this means a decent amount of work (and therefore decent pay).
I also translate subtitles on a regular basis for a few brands through agencies (from transcribed files) and my word rate applies. I would never quote blindly per minute of video, which is in my opinion a recipe for disaster.
Philippe
| | | | Jo Macdonald
Spain
Local time: 09:21
Italian to English
+ ...
| How long does it take you to do 1 minute? | May 4, 2022 |
3 minutes of video takes me about 1 hour.
My hourly rate is €30/h so my rate for timecoded English subtitles is €10/minute of English/Italian/Spanish video.
I work for direct clients and agencies for this rate, no less.
For offers like the above €1-5/minute I simply say NO (in capitals) as it's the equivalent of working for €3-15/hour, and would mean working for €20-100/day.
See how long it takes you to do 10 minutes, divide by 10
That... See more 3 minutes of video takes me about 1 hour.
My hourly rate is €30/h so my rate for timecoded English subtitles is €10/minute of English/Italian/Spanish video.
I work for direct clients and agencies for this rate, no less.
For offers like the above €1-5/minute I simply say NO (in capitals) as it's the equivalent of working for €3-15/hour, and would mean working for €20-100/day.
See how long it takes you to do 10 minutes, divide by 10
That's the time a minute of video takes.
Multiply by your hourly rate.
See the video before quoting.
If the client wants something cheap, they will find it; there will always be people who work for very little, let potential clients dangling jobs dictate how much their time is worth, and lose cheap jobs because automated machine-translated subs are free.
If you really want to lower your quote, stick to your guns quoting your price because that's what you're worth and offer the client a welcome discount on the first job. You decide how much you want to say "Hi". ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Discounted quote | May 4, 2022 |
I sent the discounted quote to my client and I'm waiting to see what they say... I don't have any qualms about saying no, (and I agree about the caps, Jo) -- this isn't my bread and butter anymore, as my day job is prepping candidates to sit the English language exams of a number of government hiring processes. I just happen to have free time and my old client happened to pop up.
Thanks for all your input and support. I'll update this thread when I hear back on my final offer.
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| Quoting blind | May 4, 2022 |
Phillippe, I couldn't agree more, and I would much preferred to have been able to quote a word rate rather than an hourly rate, but I have not been able to get them to send me the video. To be honest, I don't think they've seen it themselves.
As they are not giving me a transcript or paying me separately to prepare one, they're going to get what they get for that 960 euros. And if there are a lot of corrections, which often happens when you take a project that is so poorly defined, ... See more Phillippe, I couldn't agree more, and I would much preferred to have been able to quote a word rate rather than an hourly rate, but I have not been able to get them to send me the video. To be honest, I don't think they've seen it themselves.
As they are not giving me a transcript or paying me separately to prepare one, they're going to get what they get for that 960 euros. And if there are a lot of corrections, which often happens when you take a project that is so poorly defined, they will be charged separately, at an hourly rate. ▲ Collapse
| | | | jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 03:21
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
rubi275madri wrote:
This was my first proposal: 120 minutes of video x 10 euros/minute of original video = 1,200 euros.
The monolingual transcription part could take 20 hours to finish.
It will be transcribed to at least 18000 words.
Go figure it out with your hourly rate and per word rate.
I won't touch it if the "budget" is less than $2400.
[Edited at 2022-05-05 00:30 GMT]
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