Jorlap

Hi! I'm an aspiring subtitler. I graduated as a translator an I've attended conferences and also I had the chance to subtitle some movies for a festival. I know this what I want to do for the rest of my life because I'm really passionate about it and I'm always trying to improve my work. I'm from Peru but I'm currently staying in Mexico. My plan is to eventually live here and live off of my subtitles.

The problem is that I know very little about the financial side of it. Could you please tell me how did you start and how you got to where you are? I hope this isn't too late.

I just noticed I'm 1 kilometer away from the SDI offices. I can't belive it. Thank you again for the information you are giving me, I really appreciate it. Who says browsing reddit at work is a waste of time! I wish you all the best!

I could help with that answer. Subtitles have a lot of restrictions, one of them being the reading time that you mention, that make it almost impossible to translate word for word. You have to keep in mind time, size, number of characters, even the changes of frame. So what subtitlers do is reduce the sentence to its simplest form trying as best as they can to maintain the same message the script is conveying. This sometimes results in a completely different phrasing.

Thank you so much for answering. Could you give me some names of the companies you know? Also, if I were to start as a freelancer, am completely lost on how to charge for a subtitling service; do you think you could help me with that?

Thanks(?) I guess it comes from my love for this language and because it's the one thing I'm relatively good at