I would suggest that other subtitlers should also do the same.Ī substantial volume of content is being localized from foreign languages like Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese-Arabic into Hindi and other local languages. The vendors who want to gauge my competence can see my translation work on my website ( And yes, I am getting work from new agencies. Imagine, being asked to qualify for a test after translating for the same agency for two years. Some agencies also wake up after a deep slumber and think of testing their translators. Out of the almost two dozen agencies that I work with, there has been only one European agency that gave me a detailed report about my test. Once the test is delivered, do not expect detailed feedback as to why you didn’t pass or what you need to work on so that you can perform better next time. The Hermes Test for Netflix was also an unpaid test. When an agency approaches a translator, you are expected to qualify through a test – it should not come as a surprise that these tests are unpaid. So, this really helps the subtitler to plan ahead and deliver quality work. This practice still continues, but nowadays, some project managers do send emails to check your availability and projects are assigned one or two weeks in advance. No matter how experienced you are or what quality you deliver, it went to the one who replied first. The principle of first-come first-served was followed while allocating the project.
Some project managers used to send mass emails to translators whenever a project became available. So, I informed them and that was the end of it. I took a qualifying test for them, and when everything was finalized, I saw that the rates were not what I had agreed to. This was the same company that contacted me last year. Just recently, I was reading on LinkedIn about an Indian company that had become the Netflix Preferred Vendor for Asia-Pacific. We don’t just have to translate, but we must adhere to limits for reading speed, characters per line, two lines per subtitle, proper division of subtitles, local conventions like number and date format, units of measurement and so many other things. The reason we need guidelines is that subtitling differs from translation. It would be really helpful if all the agencies could have a lead linguist prepare guidelines. I am seeing more and more agencies who are providing guidelines to the subtitlers, along with project details. In many cases the final decision lies with the translator and the advice or changes made by QA are often disregarded, causing the quality of work to suffer.īut the situation has changed since 2016, when I was a fresher. Most agencies follow this workflow for subtitling: Translator works on the file it goes for QA and then comes back to the translator for acceptance. So, if such things are specified in guidelines, it will automatically improve the quality of subtitles. Besides, incorrect usage of nukta is pretty common. Can you believe it? Just a handful of us Indians would be able to read those numbers. Just the other day, I was reviewing a file and the numbers were written in Devnagri. There are many little nuances which are not paid heed to. The absence of guidelines often creates conflicts among translators and proofreaders. When I started subtitling in 2016, there were so many agencies who did not have clear-cut guidelines for subtitling into Hindi. To deal with the growing demand for subtitling, many companies jumped on the bandwagon without setting up the necessary infrastructure.
#Working as a subtitler for netflix full#
Such files are full of errors and it is really time consuming to rewrite the dialogue without having to also change the tone of the entire file.
So, the agencies get shows subtitled from them and then contact the experienced subtitlers for QA. Newbies are willing to work for peanuts, just to get a break or gain some experience. They get worried about the quality only when redeliveries occur. The vendors just want work done at the lowest cost. In this second part of my OTT blog series, I will share some of the challenges and blessings Hindi subtitlers like me often encounter in this profession. I have come across great linguists and empathetic project managers who inspired a shared vision and I have made some lifelong connections. It has been a great experience with its share of ups and downs. I have been working for the past three and a half years as a Hindi subtitler with over two dozen global agencies who provide subtitling for OTT platforms.
0 kommentar(er)
