Advice regarding translations

[FLL]

I need peoples' advice whether an idea I have is completely crazy or not, and how I might be able to put it into effect.

I am one of those guys who wants/needs subs to enjoy foreign movies. I have recently found a number of Russian films which look interesting but have no subs, having been released on VHS only or on DVD with no subs.

So rather than bemoaning the fact that lots of movies aren't subbed, maybe I should go out and pay someone to sub them (then release those subs generally).

Here's my idea: find someone in Russia who knows English and for whom a reasonable payment would be enough to motivate them to translate the film. (No doubt a student). Since I downloaded the film via eMule I could justify paying the translator via Paypal and rationalize it as being not much more than it would cost to actually order they DVD/VCR.

Ten years ago I was a member of a message board on contests and giveaways which included a Russian member, from Novograd. To us, the prospects of winning money or prizes was a nice way to entertain ourselves and make a little walking-around money. (In 1996 I made over $15,000 on Internet contests and giveaways, those were the days when there were few people on the net to enter contests and advertisers hadn't figured out the average person thinks so little of themselves they won't take skill-based contests seriously. I am not the most brilliant person in the world but the best decision I ever made was to go ahead and enter those contests.) To my Russian friend, that sort of money could change his lifestyle. This was in the early years after the collapse of the old USSR and the economic problems which ensued.

So have things changed radically in the USSR since then or are people there still willing to work in Russia cheaply by Western standards? I suspect things are better. (Or else there would have been a revolution). Even so, would, say, $30 or so (via Paypal) for the 4 hours work to sub a film find takers?

And where would I find them? My inclination is to post a want ad at a Russian University somehow, but I have no good idea how to proceed or places to post an ad. Advice and ideas, please!

[abel]

Umm, sounds good to me, I was thinking a lot about language problems which experience English speaking people when encountering an interesting looking East European movie. Except may be with Hungarian I don´t experience such problems, Czech being my mother tongue, in Slovakia I was living for more than 40 years, learning in this time Russian, Polish, Croatian, and well, of course European (English+French+German). So if I would be good with PC I would may be react to your request straight in offering you my knowledge, but I have not the slightest idea about how the subs are added etc. So I feel the best way would be find some "friendly" Russian website, with similar interested people, and to ask there, I´m sure of some positive feedback. Will try to find out.