Inside the dying art of subtitling

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Mr. Satan (X)
Mr. Satan (X)
английский => индонезийский
Well yes, but... Feb 22, 2022


Almost 20 professional groups have united under the banner AudioVisual Translators Europe, a federation that aims to improve working conditions for all media translators by working with and educating European institutions and legislators.


I'm sorry. But for as long as this federation/association has no authority over the business globally, it won't be able to do much to improve the situation.

Oh, BTW...
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/14/netflix-raises-prices-in-us-and-canada-stock-pops.html


polishedwords
Thomas Connery
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Португалия
Local time: 15:35
Член ProZ.com c 2007
английский => португальский
+ ...
Well... Feb 22, 2022

I am not a subtitler, but I’d be grateful if someone anywhere in the world was trying to move things forward. I suppose all things have to start somewhere and doing something is better than none at all…

Mr. Satan (X)
P.L.F. Persio
Josephine Cassar
Jennifer Levey
Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Thayenga
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Нидерланды
Local time: 16:35
Член ProZ.com c 2006
английский => африкаанс
+ ...
The URL Feb 22, 2022

The URL that matters is this one:
https://avteurope.eu


Mr. Satan (X)
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Tom in London
P.L.F. Persio
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
 
Mr. Satan (X)
Mr. Satan (X)
английский => индонезийский
Yes Feb 22, 2022

I sincerely hope that AVTE can incorporate their goals into the EU Law, which should (fingers crossed) cause a ripple effect to the US. Especially so, since most of the major streaming services are based in there.

Samuel Murray wrote:

The URL that matters is this one:
https://avteurope.eu


[Edited at 2022-02-22 09:50 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
Великобритания
Local time: 15:35
Член ProZ.com c 2008
итальянский => английский
Thanks Samuel Feb 22, 2022

Samuel Murray wrote:

The URL that matters is this one:
https://avteurope.eu


The original article is very interesting to read, and that link you posted also provides much food for thought, such as this quote:

"Neural translation, as impressive as it can be, is just another tool in a skilled translator’s belt. Achieving human translation quality level through post-editing often takes as much time as doing the work from scratch. But stripped of the creativity and fun. At a fraction of the price. And much added stress"

So far, that is a point that isn't getting across, but I believe that in time, it will, and there will be a renewal of interest in the work of skilled, hardworking translators.



[Edited at 2022-02-22 16:48 GMT]


P.L.F. Persio
Fiona Gonçalves
Elena Kharlamova
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Mr. Satan (X)
Peter Shortall
Marilene Karam-Sakuraba
 
Josephine Cassar
Josephine Cassar  Identity Verified
Мальта
Local time: 16:35
Член ProZ.com c 2012
английский => мальтийский
+ ...
And Feb 22, 2022

Tom in London wrote:

Samuel Murray wrote:

The URL that matters is this one:
https://avteurope.eu


The original article is very interesting to read, and that link you posted also provides much food for thought, such as this quote:

"Neural translation, as impressive as it can be, is just another tool in a skilled translator’s belt. Achieving human translation quality level through post-editing often takes as much time as doing the work from scratch. But stripped of the creativity and fun. At a fraction of the price. And much added stress"

So far, that is a point that isn't getting across, but I believe that in time, it will, and there will be a renewal of interest in the work of skilled, hardworking translators.



[Edited at 2022-02-22 16:48 GMT]

And, IMO will never be like direct human translation because the editor is psychologically conditioned by the machine translated text. Thanks Samuel, very interesting.


Tom in London
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Mr. Satan (X)
P.L.F. Persio
Peter Shortall
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
Teplocteur
 
neilmac
neilmac
Испания
Local time: 16:35
испанский => английский
+ ...
Subtitling howlers Mar 4, 2022

I saw a cracker last night, showing an egregious lack of cultural background knowledge and/or unseemly haste. The Australian-English soft rock duo from the 80s, Air Supply, translated into Spanish as "Erso Play"...
Come to think of it, it might have been a case of speech recognition based machine translation.

[Edited at 2022-03-04 09:42 GMT]


Mr. Satan (X)
Elizabeth Joy Pitt de Morales
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
 
Oliver Simões
Oliver Simões  Identity Verified
США
Local time: 08:35
английский => португальский
+ ...
Sad exploitation Apr 23, 2022

It would be interesting to read an honest, critical essay/article about the current state of translation as a profession. I don't think it's very far from what was said about subtitling. I am so sick and tired of translation agencies requiring that I take a free test. Frankly, I don't know of any other occupation where service providers are required to take tests, let alone free tests. There was one agency offering proofreaders a meager rate of 0.011 USD per word and they also wanted candidates ... See more
It would be interesting to read an honest, critical essay/article about the current state of translation as a profession. I don't think it's very far from what was said about subtitling. I am so sick and tired of translation agencies requiring that I take a free test. Frankly, I don't know of any other occupation where service providers are required to take tests, let alone free tests. There was one agency offering proofreaders a meager rate of 0.011 USD per word and they also wanted candidates to take a test. That's unreal. I started saying no to these exploiters. Unfortunately, translators by and large are not ready to say no or draw the line. They should. There's nothing wrong to say NO to exploitation. We should value our work whether we are translators, subtitlers, reviewers, etc. Unfortunately, some folks are willing to work for almost nothing and accept anything that comes their way.

[Edited at 2022-04-23 01:43 GMT]
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Mr. Satan (X)
Ismail Afqir
 
Mr. Satan (X)
Mr. Satan (X)
английский => индонезийский
Boredom Apr 23, 2022

[yawn]

I'm bored. People keep complaining about the low rates, and yet nobody really does anything meaningful to elevate the situation.


Jorge Payan
 
Brian Joyce
Brian Joyce  Identity Verified
Великобритания
французский => английский
Union. Apr 23, 2022

Novian Cahyadi wrote:

[yawn]

I'm bored. People keep complaining about the low rates, and yet nobody really does anything meaningful to elevate the situation.


The fundamental work of any trade union is to police the industry, and make sure exploitation is stopped.
A recent case here in Britain;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-61059174

shows how impotent trade unions are in the 21st century. How can you police a global industry?
How are you going to get agencies to pay a decent rate, when they have access to cheap labour?
We need a revolution in the name of all the exploited, including textile workers in India that make the clothes we wear.


Mr. Satan (X)
P.L.F. Persio
 
Mr. Satan (X)
Mr. Satan (X)
английский => индонезийский
@Brian Joyce Apr 23, 2022

I've been yelling at the cloud like an old madman.

... See more
I've been yelling at the cloud like an old madman.

https://www.proz.com/forum/getting_established/355988-unnecessary_annoying_zoom_meetings-page2.html#2943142
https://www.proz.com/forum/translation_news/355913-audiovisual_translation.html#2942758
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P.L.F. Persio
 
Brian Joyce
Brian Joyce  Identity Verified
Великобритания
французский => английский
Paying peanuts Apr 23, 2022

I'm not kidding. But the subtitles of a high brow contemporary Norwegian film read;
" I wasn't sick already then ".
This is a shocking example of the sorry state of the industry. If that's not bad enough, the film is about a writer.


P.L.F. Persio
Mr. Satan (X)
 


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