About how much text is in 1 hour interview?
Thread poster: Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 00:15
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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Mar 13, 2019

If someone wants to know how much I would charge for one minute of video I should know how much text I should expect. What do you think?

 
Thayenga
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Germany
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English to German
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Per audio minute Mar 13, 2019

This type of project is normally charged at a fixed audio minute price, mainly regardless of how many words the video actually does have.

If you want to charge per word, then you should ask to see the video first in order to at least estimate the number of words in the entire video and, accordingly, your per minute charge.

[Edited at 2019-03-13 11:58 GMT]


Mr. Satan (X)
 
Samuel Murray
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Netherlands
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Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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@Heinrich Mar 13, 2019

Heinrich Pesch wrote:
If someone wants to know how much I would charge for one minute of video, I should know how much text I should expect. What do you think?


1. You have to transcribe the text (unless you can translate on the fly, which is what many clients seem to expect). To transcribe 1 minute of video takes 10 minutes.

2. Google tells me you're looking at between 150 and 250 words per minute, depending on how professional and/or how nervous the speaker is.


Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Recep Kurt
Hedwig Spitzer (X)
Gareth Callagy
Andrew Stat
Adieu
 
Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 00:15
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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TOPIC STARTER
That sounds realistic Mar 13, 2019

200 words per minute is 12 thousand words per hour. At my word rate that makes at least 1400 Euro per hour. I guess the chap will not pay that much, he might expect a few bucks per minute.
I have done some subtitling before but always got the text to translate in Word so I could easily apply my usual rate.


Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Yaotl Altan
 
kmtext
kmtext
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:15
English
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It varies Mar 13, 2019

Depending on how fast they're speaking, you can expect anything from 5,000-9,000 words in an hour, and sometimes even more if there's a heated discussion with multiple speakers and people talking over each other, which is why clients tend to prefer a per-minute rate.

Adieu
Mr. Satan (X)
 
LEXpert
LEXpert  Identity Verified
United States
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Croatian to English
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Audio hour vs. translator-hour Mar 13, 2019

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

200 words per minute is 12 thousand words per hour. At my word rate that makes at least 1400 Euro per hour.


Heinrich, that would be 12 thousand words per *audio hour*. After transcribing, it would take you however long it would normally take you to translate 12 thousand words. 1400 EUR per audio hour would be 23 euros per audio minute.

While not as wildly stratospheric as 1400 EUR per translator-hour, that would still definitely be in the "premium" range, though it's probably not that much more than what it take to a proper job, especially if the audio isn't perfect. I suspect most outsourcers would probably be looking to pay about a quarter to a third of that for translation from audio or video. Generally it isn't a profitable endeavor. Transcribing is a difficult task that is most efficiently done by experienced monolingual transcriptionists who are natives of the source language. And there is a world of difference between a two-person interview in a quiet room with excellent acoustics and, say, a 10-person focus group in a conference room adjacent to a busy plant area.


[Edited at 2019-03-13 20:41 GMT]


Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Mr. Satan (X)
 
Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 00:15
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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TOPIC STARTER
Generous offer Mar 15, 2019

This morning in my mail I found this:

"The work materials are videos that are spoken in German and the
task is to transcribe e-learning course videos of approximately
125 minutes in total and create a time-coded subtitle in VTT
format.

The project is ready to start immediately, and a deadline is
Sunday, March 17th.

Offer pay is EUR150 for the project. "

Its a wonderful world, this world of translation.


Colleen Roach, PhD
Andrew Stat
 
Andrew Stat
Andrew Stat
Local time: 16:15
French
About one company Jan 16, 2021

My friend had so that he had to translate not by the minute, but by the number of videos. He was required to translate at a high speed. Approximately the interview lasted an hour and there were 7,000 words. On that day the company where he was employed checked how much work he was ready to cope with

Heinrich be careful what the company demands of you


 
Adieu
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Ukrainian to English
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IIRC Jan 17, 2021

Focus groups generally made for 30-40k symbols (not words... so like 6-7k words I guess?)

It has been a while, I can't recall if they were 1h or 2h. Although if what others here say is true, most likely 1h.

If they want you to do the transcription too, you'll want to increase your rate. However, be advised that transcribers are a rather poorly paid lot compared to established translators, so I doubt they'll bite for more than ~125% of your usual translation rate... if
... See more
Focus groups generally made for 30-40k symbols (not words... so like 6-7k words I guess?)

It has been a while, I can't recall if they were 1h or 2h. Although if what others here say is true, most likely 1h.

If they want you to do the transcription too, you'll want to increase your rate. However, be advised that transcribers are a rather poorly paid lot compared to established translators, so I doubt they'll bite for more than ~125% of your usual translation rate... if that.

[Edited at 2021-01-17 05:44 GMT]
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Mr. Satan (X)
 
Andrew Stat
Andrew Stat
Local time: 16:15
French
About my friend Jan 27, 2021

My friend had to translate not by minutes, but by the number of videos(from English to French). He was required to translate at a high speed. The interview lasted more than an hour, and it was 7,000 words long. That day, the company he worked for checked how much work he was willing to do. The funny thing about his practice was that he translated questions that people used in a conversation, like about a meeting or something. In order to improve the translation My friend opens different sites i... See more
My friend had to translate not by minutes, but by the number of videos(from English to French). He was required to translate at a high speed. The interview lasted more than an hour, and it was 7,000 words long. That day, the company he worked for checked how much work he was willing to do. The funny thing about his practice was that he translated questions that people used in a conversation, like about a meeting or something. In order to improve the translation My friend opens different sites in which there are a lot of texts and here he came across a large number of offers were from there. So,
Henry, don't worry. You should not care how much you will be asked over time. More practice and good luck

[Edited at 2021-01-27 21:14 GMT]
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I think that.. Jan 6, 2022

It's hard to say how many words there can be in one hour-long interview. It all depends on the broadcast speed of the interviewer and the interviewee. In my experience, it is better to set a price for one audio minute or the entire project, taking into account the average volume.

Mr. Satan (X)
 


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