Filmic Legacy

I was miffed, to say the least, when I discovered that the Filmic Pro app that I had previously purchased had been changed to a subscription model. As far as I could tell, I could not download or send pre-recorded videos to my camera roll (among other previously available features) unless I paid for a fairly expensive subscription. It might be worth it to professionals or content creators, but I’m a casual user for personal purposes. More than a year after this discovery (after which I had stopped using the app for obvious reasons, but luckily didn’t delete it because I didn’t want to lose my videos), I went back to read the reviews of others in the same boat. The developers responded to some of those reviews with instructions on how to download this legacy version (for those who had previously purchased the original app) and move previously recorded video files from the Filmic Pro file folder to the newly created Filmic Legacy file folder on my iphone. There is even a tutorial video of the file transfer process. So my app (Filmic Legacy now) is completely functional again, and I have complete access/control of my videos, including downloading or sending videos to my camera roll. I knocked off one star because this information, as far as I know, was never sent to those who had previously purchased the Filmic Pro app. I was just lucky to discover the legacy version on my own. Hopefully, this review will help others.

Just to be clear, as I’ve read some confused in the reviews, stating you must download a trial of version 7 to access version 6 legacy. That would not work obviously last the first trial week. So no, you do NOT need a free trial to download version 6 legacy. You can just hit the X, and exit out of the options to purchase a subscription, and enter the app, where there an option to download version 6.It’s not a very simple process, and it’s also not very clear. But it’s possible!And I will not be supporting this change in pricing, that went from a lifetime purchase of $20 to a yearly subscription of $50.Ani5er app of theirs, Focos live, had even more outrageous a change: it went from $15 for a lifetime purchase, to a $69 yearly subscription!I’ve seen this happen before with other apps, and they weren’t successful with the change and eventually changed their model again. Maybe this developer believes their customers are all using these apps in pro film production, and that they’ll fork out the price increase. As a filmmaker who uses pro film equipment and this for leisure, it just makes little sense to me. It’s not about being able to afford it even, but about a change that makes little sense for me as a consumer, and that I choose not to support. I would’ve gladly purchased a new version of these apps from time to time. But what amount to almost the subscription to adobe’s photography bundle (which I also don’t love…)? No, thank you.

As a business owner I understand that work requires some sort of monetization to keep the lights on. Maybe the real mistake was not to plan on years coming and the one-time price for the app was not the best way to go from the start, especially being so expensive (for an app), but to me it was worth it. However I understand money has to be made and people have to get paid to keep working so I don’t sense any bad intentions, just time catching up. I have bought apps AND devices before, like my Apple Watch 3 which no longer updates but gives me all the features I originally paid for, so I feel like what I spent on Filmic years ago has already given me my moneys’ worth and then some. Still unsure how much I will use v7 as I am now more of a casual user but really appreciate the fact they gave us v6 to use freely.