Lee museum spotlights county's special-effects and animation firms

By Jack Guillet12:00AM / Monday, July 07, 2003Print Story | Email Story

Tucked away in a cozy nook on Main Street in Lee is a museum that celebrates Berkshire individuals and companies who have contributed special effects and animation to major motion pictures and commercials. Though small, the Animagic Museum of Animation, Special Effects and Art is chock full of interesting exhibits and examples of work and techniques that have been locally developed. The museum's owners and operators, Eugene Mamut and his wife Irina Borisova, have been and continue to be a part of the Berkshire special effects and animation industries. Animagic, which opened in November 2002, contains a number of computers and televisions upon which Mamut and Borisova show examples of Berkshire-developed special effects techniques and clips of movies and commercials that had contributions from Berkshire people. The museum also contains a Mamut-made model that illustrates binary code and how a computer works. A glass case holds puppets, models and claymation figures - Mamut calls them "movie stars" - that Borisova created over the years for national commercials. Designated "Irina Borisova's Gallery," one wall of the museum is covered with faces and pieces that she carved. Another glass case sheds light on the awards - mostly Academy Awards - that Berkshire residents in the business have won for their work. Among those winners is Mamut, who won an Academy Award Scientific and Engineering Award for developing the "camouflage effect" for the film Predator, which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger. Located at 77 Main St., Animagic has a gift area stocked with interesting products that illustrate special effects techniques. Among the products is a miniature globe that rotates in thin air because of magnets above and below it and a product with a face that moves as you walk by it. Mamut said his museum will soon have some new items for sale. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Mamut revealed the basic concepts and actions involved with some of the visual effects developed by Berkshire people. Although the effects look mind-boggling in movies, the concepts behind them are relatively simple. For instance, Mamut illustrated the essence of a special effect from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by doing some simple techniques with a computer scanner. Along a similar line, Mamut said there's a misconception amongst computer animation graduates that they need access to expensive computer programs and equipment to produce quality work. "You need only a brain. You don't need to have big programs. You need talent," he said. To illustrate his point, Mamut said a man named Victor Navone, using a standard computer program, created a short computer-animated film called Alien Song, and, because of it, got a job with Pixar, the company behind the hit Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo, which is currently playing in theaters. Throughout July, as they have done in the past, Mamut and Borisova, who are Ukraine natives, will be conducting two-hour workshops at the museum, through which they explain how special effects are made and guide participants in creating their own animated films - including titles and music - that they can bring home with them. Open to people of all ages, the workshops cost $20, which includes all materials and equipment. For more information about Animagic, call 243-2051 or visit http://mambor.com/animagic . The history of Berkshire-based special effects talent In 1987, a man in the industry named Douglas Trumbull moved from Hollywood to the village of Housatonic, where he started a company called Berkshire Motion Picture. During his tenure as the special effects supervisor for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Trumbull created groundbreaking visual effects called split-scan special effects. In 1972 Trumbull created a science-fiction film called Silent Running; naming a space ship in the film "Berkshire." Trumbull, who won an Academy Award Scientific and Engineering Award, also contributed to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Blade Runner. In 1991, at a ridefilm business he started in Lenox called the Trumbull Co.,Trumbull developed a Back to the Future ride that is at the Universal Studios theme parks in Florida and California. Later on, he sold the business to the IMAX company. After the special effects pioneer relocated to the Berkshires, individuals and companies in the special effects industry in New York City, Hollywood and other places also made a jump to the area. Joining the Trumbull Co. in Lenox were Mass Illusion, Kleiser-Walczak from Los Angeles, and Manex. Mass Illusion was started by people from a New York City-based special effects company called R/Greenberg Associates, which contributed to the films Predator, Predator 2, Dirty Dancing and Ghost Dad and created a "stereoride" called The Birds for the Universal Studios theme park based upon the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock. Mass Illusion, where Mamut worked for a number of years, did effects for the films The Matrix, What Dreams May Come, Starship Troopers, Judge Dredd, Eraser and Die Hard With a Vengeance. For Judge Dredd, which stars Sylvester Stallone, the company created a "city of the future" and models, Mamut said. For The Matrix, Mass Illusion developed a "bullet effect" technique, which made the bullets in one sequence of the film look like they were moving in slow motion. The company did this by setting up 122 cameras at different angles, which simultaneously photographed bullets in motion, Mamut said. In 1997, Kleiser-Walczak, which had done digital effects for the film TRON while in Los Angeles, relocated to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, becoming one of the first tenants in the complex. The company has done work for the films X-Men; X-Men 2; Stargate; Honey, I Shrunk the Kids; Clear and Present Danger; Mortal Kombat 2; and The Rage: Carrie 2. Kleiser-Walczak also did work for an attraction at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va., and did the visual effects for a Christmas production presented at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. A New Jersey company called Chamberlain Group moved to Great Barrington. Besides creating visual effects for films, the company developed a very realistic, latex model heart that actually beats. Medical students can practice on the hearts instead of having to use a real hearts, Mamut said. A contributor of animation to Wallace & Grommit and Chicken Run, Tom Gasek moved to the Berkshires from the Boston area. He went on to start a company in Great Barrington called Out of Hand Animation. In addition, the company, where Borisova works, has done many commercials for companies, including Hallmark and Burger King. Also in Great Barrington is a company called Powder Keg, which does computer-generated animation. The company did award-winning work for a 3-D, stereoscopic film called A TinkerDoodle Christmas that Out of Hand developed for the Santa's Village theme park in Jefferson, N.H. The film included computer graphics and stop-motion animation, Mamut said. Jay Ignaszewski, who contributed to Star Wars, moved to the Berkshires from the San Francisco area. In 1997, Trumbull started a visual effects and animation studio in Sheffield called the Entertainment Design Group. In 2002 he donated the studio to The Visionaries, a nonprofit producer of documentaries for public television. Although some of the special effects companies in the Berkshires have moved to other parts of the country, the industry is still alive and well here.

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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

02:13PM / Tuesday, December 23, 2025

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."

The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School.

The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday.

The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season.

The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations.

"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.

"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."

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