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✦ Task type · Language work

Subtitles are a timing problem, not a typing problem

Automatic captions get the words. What they cannot do is decide when a line should appear, how long it should stay, and where to break it, which is the part viewers actually experience.

Post this taskThinking of taking one instead?

Subtitling is one of the clearest cases where automation moved the work rather than removing it. The transcript is solved. The timing, the segmentation and the compression are not, and those are what a viewer experiences as good or bad subtitles.

What to put in the public brief

Keep the video private.

What to put in the private instructions

  1. Give the video, the auto-caption draft and the format

    Say the file type and the frame rate. A subtitle file at the wrong frame rate drifts, and the drift only appears near the end.

  2. Set the reading rate and maximum lines

    Two lines, never three. State the characters-per-second target so shortening a line is an instruction rather than a liberty.

  3. Say to break on sense, not on width

    "Where a speaker would pause" beats any rule about line length, and it is what separates subtitles that read easily from subtitles that are merely present.

  4. Say whether to caption sound

    Music, laughter, a door. Required for accessibility captions, wrong for ordinary translation subtitles, and never guessable.

Proof worth requiring

Ask for

The subtitle file in the named format, and one screenshot of the busiest passage with subtitles displayed so you can see the worst case rather than the average.

Do not ask for

A re-exported video with subtitles burned in, unless that is the deliverable. You lose the ability to correct a single line without a full re-render.

When this task type is the wrong tool

If you need the spoken content as text rather than on screen, that is transcription and it costs less.

If the video will run in several languages, subtitle the source language first and have that file translated. Subtitling each language from the audio separately pays for the timing work over and over.

Common questions

Why not just use auto-captions?

Use them as the draft. They produce a word-accurate transcript with unusable timing: lines that appear a beat late, run three lines deep, and break mid-phrase. Correcting timing and line breaks is most of the work and all of the value.

Burned-in or a subtitle file?

A file wherever the platform supports one, because it can be turned off, translated and read by search engines. Burn in only for platforms that autoplay muted without caption support, and even then keep the file, because a burned-in subtitle cannot be corrected without re-exporting.

What reading speed should I specify?

Around seventeen characters per second for adult content, lower for anything technical. If a line cannot be read at that rate it needs to be shortened rather than left up longer, and knowing which is the skill you are paying for.

What reward is fair?

Two to five dollars per video minute for correcting timing on an existing draft, more for subtitling from nothing or into a second language. Rate rises steeply with more than two speakers.

Thinking of taking this task?

The same job, from the other side. Rewards are set by the poster, so treat these as the range this task type usually sits in rather than a promise.

Usually pays
$2 to $5 per video minute
You need
Accurate hearing and patience with timing
Proof expected
The subtitle file in the format named

Timing and line breaks are the work, not the words. Break where a speaker pauses, and shorten a line rather than leaving it up longer.

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Brief subtitles

Set the reward, the language and the format you need. Workers reserve a spot; your video stays private until they do.

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