Bending Spoons confirmed it laid off all 22 of Filmic’s original staff
Logo: Filmic / Image: The VergeBending Spoons has laid off all of the staff behind mobile filmmaking app Filmic Pro, including Filmic CEO Neill Barham. Christy Keenan, a spokesperson for Bending Spoons, confirmed the layoffs in an email to...
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Bending Spoons has laid off all of the staff behind mobile filmmaking app Filmic Pro, including Filmic CEO Neill Barham. Christy Keenan, a spokesperson for Bending Spoons, confirmed the layoffs in an email to The Verge, saying that “all 22 members of the original Filmic team” were laid off in November and Filmic “has now been fully integrated into the Bending Spoons platform.” PetaPixel first reported the layoffs on Friday.
Keenan added that because the “dedicated team” at the company worked with Filmic’s original crew, it “possesses the necessary knowledge to ensure a seamless user experience.” The company was already involved in mobile video with its Splice video editing app, which it took over from GoPro in 2018.
Bending Spoons bought Filmic in September 2022 and rolled out a $2.99 weekly subscription plan soon after (with a $50 per year option). That’s cheap for a professional app, but Filmic Pro’s previous one-time payment system made it much more accessible for independent filmmakers. Bending Spoons has made similar changes for Evernote, another company it bought last year before laying off most of its original staff over the summer.
Filmic Pro enjoyed plenty of popularity among mobile filmmakers over the years, having been used to shoot movies and music videos. Apple even featured the Filmic DoubleTake dual-camera recording app prominently when it overhauled its camera approach for the iPhone 11 Pro phones. Filmic even announced FilmicFest 2023, its annual competitive mobile filmmaking festival, would return this year with a $25,000 grand prize, but that’s presumably canceled since the event signup page no longer exists.
Some former high-level employees posted about their departure. Christopher Cohen, who was Filmic’s technical chief officer, posted on November 3rd that he was no longer with the company. Kevin Buonagurio, the company’s now-former chief operating officer, replied to a LinkedIn user who’d shared the PetaPixel story yesterday, saying that “pushing the envelope” of mobile filmmaking was part of “what made the Filmic journey so fulfilling for us.”
Update December 4th, 2023, 9:57AM ET: Added confirmation from Bending Spoons spokesperson Christy Keenan.
