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NEW YORK -- There are guerrillas at Macworld CreativePro Expo. They lurk in the aisles, and they linger at the booths.
Show even a vague interest in movie making on a Mac and the guerrillas swoop in. They drag the curious off to a digital den where they extol the joys of making movies with Apple hardware and Final Cut Pro software.
They describe themselves as "guerrilla filmmakers," independent directors who create for both fun and profit, and they see themselves as a resistance force battling the banality of mainstream movies.
"There's a world full of weird and important stories to tell, so I'm not sitting around waiting for scripts or budgets to be approved," said filmmaker Laszlo Balogh. "I roll my own movies."
Most all the independent filmmakers that make up a significant portion of the attendees at this week's Macworld CreativePro conference are also wildly enamored of Final Cut Pro, Apple's popular video- and film-editing software for professionals.
Many are members of their local Final Cut Pro user groups, or FCPUGs, enthusiast organizations that have sprung up all over the world.
"This piece of software has changed tens of thousands of lives," said Michael Horton, head of the 27,000-member-strong Los Angeles FCPUG. "I'm not really sure what's going on here, but I know it's big."
And although most FCPUG members, including Horton, make a point of denying any evangelical tendencies, it's clear many think the world would be a better place if everyone made movies with FCP.
"Look at what you can do with this software!" raved filmmaker Mark Ferrano. "How could you not love it? How could you not want to play with it?"
Introduced in 1999, Final Cut Pro has become the best-selling nonlinear digital editing program on the market. It garnered Apple an Emmy Engineering Award in 2002 from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
CNN, MTV, Showtime, The Discovery Channel, ESPN and the major non-cable networks use Final Cut Pro to produce reality shows, news broadcasts, documentaries and commercials, according to Apple.
FCP's popularity has become so great that Adobe recently opted to drop all Mac support for future versions of Premiere, its own digital video-editing program.
Although Adobe's announcement was made two weeks ago, it's now a hot topic of discussion at Macworld, fueled by Apple's announcement on Wednesday that Premiere users could trade in Premiere for a 50 percent discount on Final Cut Pro 4, which normally sells for $1,000.
"I hate to see any company drop support for a Mac product, but Adobe was right to get out of this market," said filmmaker Fred Nichols. "There's just no reason to use anything other than FCP."
A year ago, Horton and the heads of the Chicago, San Francisco and Boston FCPUGs formed a loosely organized consortium called the FCPUG Network, which now has 25 member groups from around the world.
The group has been giving hourly FCP demos at Macworld, along with frequent screenings of films made by FCPUG members.
FCP fans will be showing some of their films at the FCPUG Network's party Thursday night.
Apple's Brian Schmidt will be on hand at the party to demo DVD Studio Pro 2. Paul Saconne, Apple's Final Cut Pro product manager, will conduct a session on Final Cut Pro 4, which was released on June 14.
