4 Video Localization Cost-Factors for On-Screen Titles Replacement

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On-screen titles (OST) replacement is often the most labor-intensive element of a video localization project. So much so, in fact, that for some projects this one element ends up being the main cost driver. For this reason, it’s critical that multimedia localization professionals have a sense of whether or not their video will require labor-intensive OST localization.

This post will list four factors that affect on-screen title replacement costs.

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Why is on-screen titles replacement so labor-intensive for video localization?

It’s hard to convey just how labor-intensive on-screen title replacement is, and how variable this cost can be during post-production. For starters, most professional editing programs – including Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer – don’t have a reliable way to export titles and re-import translations. That means all titles replacement work has to be done manually, by copying and pasting.

Moreover, videos that look similar may have been created in radically different ways. For example, some source files have titles in editable text boxes – this is relatively straight-forward for localization. Others have imported graphics or even video sequences, which require much more effort to replace. To complicate matters, there’s no real way to tell these kinds of timelines apart just by looking at an exported video.

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This can be quite frustrating on dubbing or subtitling projects since both services are usually quoted based on output videos alone. Not so with titles replacement, which require source files to finalize quotes. Fortunately, there are four main cost factors that can be gleaned from output videos and initial conversations with the client, then used to gauge preliminary costs.

They follow.

1. Title frequency.

As we said above, every title instance must be replaced manually in the source editing files. There’s no good way to get around this (though a few third-party developers have tried). Thus, the first cost factor is pretty simple – the total number of titles to be replaced. This is usually the main cost-factor on e-Learning and how-to videos, in which titles reiterate the instructional voice-over.

2. Title complexity.

The visual effects, animations or other elements used on each title also affect the labor required to replace it. Aside from adding to the rendering time, many effects require outlining text or even creating multiple layers of a single text string – and that can make the localization process take significantly longer. In fact, high complexity is often the main cost-factor on marketing spots or commercials, which feature sophisticated graphics work.

3. Availability of source graphics files.

Some video editing timelines contain output graphics files like JPEGs, TIFFs and PNGs instead of editable text strings. This is particularly common on corporate video projects that leverage existing documentation, logos or marketing collateral. If source files for these materials are available – usually in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop or another graphics editing program – they can be edited with the localized strings, output and re-imported. But if they’re not, the graphics will have to be re-created, adding time and cost to the titles replacement process.

4. Availability of source editing files.

So far the discussion has assumed that source editing files are available, but it’s critical to remember that sometimes they are not. This is especially true for legacy multimedia localization projects. While it’s generally more cost-effective to replace titles in a video’s source editing file, there are options if all you have in an output video.

For starters, many video production companies output “textless” versions of their videos on which localized titles can be added relatively cost-effectively. In fact, this is common practice in the entertainment and marketing industries, which pre-date digital file transfer. While this workflow requires re-creating titles and matching animations manually, it still allows for high-quality results.

If you don’t have source files or textless videos, there are still options, of course – you can read more about them in our previous post, Replacing on-screen titles without source files.

Optimize title localization costs during setup

If you have a particularly title-heavy video or one with complex animations, remember that there are a few things you can do to lower costs. For starters, you can simplify titles with heavy effects. Likewise, you can reduce the number of titles, creating an English source optimized specifically for localization. This is particularly useful on subtitling projects since subtitles compete with any existing on-screen titles for an audience’s attention anyway. And finally, you can make sure that all linguistic units are on single titles – this will not only reduce the overall localization cost but also increase translation quality. In short, take the time to set up your video localization project properly, and to think through the cost factors. As with multimedia localization in general, proper preparation is the key to keeping projects as cost-effective as possible.

 

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