不瞭解字幕工作的朋友可能以為這個工作非常輕鬆、無甚重要，祇要交給工讀生做就好，根本不需要資深寫作人或者文字愛好者出手。這是不理解文字之重要的人所持有的看法，因此認為寫字幕的服務不應該報高價，最好愈低愈好。
可能是受到這個輕蔑文字工作的看法所影響，低價找字幕寫手／譯者的結果，自然就是大眾看到的品質惡劣的字幕。這是求仁得仁，怪不得人。
所幸的是，世界上還是有很多客戶重視字幕，而且願意花錢請專業寫手處理字幕。一般最快上字幕的作法就是請譯者寫SRT檔案。速度可以很快是因為譯者必須下很多工夫，因為譯者必須使用軟體將說話者的時間區拉前拉後，還要注意每一行的字數不可超出限制。
若不熟手，短短五分鐘的錄影弄個字幕耗上數小時也是可能。即使是字幕譯者寫字幕很上手，上字幕的SRT檔案也是需要比較長的時間才能處理好。
若各位想處理中譯英、英譯中、馬來語譯英文字幕，歡迎來信詢問：keith@keithyeow.com
Those who don’t understand subtitling work might have thought this to be a very relaxing and even trivial job. They thought subtitling work can be handled by student workers. And senior writers and people who love writing need not work on subtitling. People who don’t understand the importance of subtitling might have such a viewpoint. And they might think that subtitling work should not ask for a high rate. Instead, they want the quotation for subtitling work to be as low as possible.
Things might have been affected by such viewpoint. The consequence of hiring subtitler with a low rate is that it is not uncommon for the audiences to see low-quality subtitles. You sow what you reap, and we’ve got only ourselves to blame.
Thankfully, many clients in the world still value subtitling work and they are willing to spend money to hire professional writers to take up their subtitling work. Getting a translator to produce SRT file is the fastest way to upload subtitles. A fast uploading of subtitle lines is all thanks to the translator’s hard work to drag a speaker’s conversation timeframe front and back, and they have to make sure the lines must not exceed character limit.
If a subtitler is not familiar with subtitling software, it is possible that writing an SRT file for a five-minute recording might take up several hours. Even if the subtitler is familiar with subtitling software, a good SRT file still takes longer time to be done.
If you or your friends need our subtitling input for the language pairs of Chinese into English, English into Chinese, as well as Malay into English, please drop us an email to further discuss about your project: keith@keithyeow.com
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