NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 24, 1997

MASS.ILLUSION PARTNERS WITH MANEX GROUP

Negotiations of the deal, which marks the Manex Group's first acquisition in the entertainment industry, were assisted by principals from MediaFusion, a management and strategic consulting company for the international entertainment and new media industries.

"It is extremely exciting for MASS.ILLUSIONS' employees to have the oppportunity to create the company's future," says Diane Pearlman, executive producer, who founded MASS.ILLUSION three years ago with Academy-Award-winning visual-effects supervisor Joel Hynek. "At a time when independent visual effects houses are struggling to survive, we welcome the Manex Group's business acumen which will allow us to expand the company in the ways we have always envisioned."

MASS.ILLUSIONS is the only full-service visual effects studio on the East Coast. Located in the picturesque Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts, the company provides end-to-end services including art and design, computer graphics, character animation, digital compositing, motion control and live-action photography, physical effects and model/miniature fabrication. The company intends to remain in the Berkshires as well as expand its current facility on the west coast.

The Manex Group's corporate headquarters are in Manchester, England, and its U.S. headquarters are in Dublin, Ohio. The Manchester Exchange Investment Company Limited operates as the parent company of the Manex Group. Its business roots date back to 1876 when the original company, the Manchester Exchange and Investment Bank, was founded in England. The Manex Group is primarily a provider of corporate finance and business consultancy services to corporations, financial and investing institutions, universities and charities.

"We understood when we first looked at MASS.ILLUSION, that their pool of talent was enormous," says Buck Vaile of Manex Entertainment. "We learned as we went forward that what we initially saw was a mere fraction of the creative genius and true capabilities that they have."

MASS.ILLUSIONS, known for its innovative approach to the union of art and technology in visual effects filmmaking, has assembled an international team of the world's best artists, computer animators, compositors, software specialists, and model makers. Currently at its San Francisco digital studio and Lenox facility, the company is creating a spectacular depiction of the afterworld in What Dreams May Come for Polygram Films/Interscope Communications, Inc./Metafilmics, Inc. The film, directed by Vincent Ward, stars Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr., Max von Sydow and Annabella Sciorra. For its startling representation of heaven in What Dreams May Come, MI has developed groundbreaking software tools that enable computer animators to turn a photographed natural environment into a painted world.

The company's commercial production division is in production on four new national commercials for Burger King, as well as a spot for GTE pagers.

Previous productions include the exciting airplane sequence for Warner Bros. Eraser; visual effects consultation for Cinergi's Evita, Paramount's The Evening Star and The First Wives Club; visual effects production for Shadow Conspiracy, and model making for Event Horizon. MASS.ILLUSION was formed in 1994 to provide visual effects for two Cinergi Pictures Entertainment films, Judge Dredd and Die Hard With a Vengeance.

For further information, please contact MASS.ILLUSIONS at +1 (510) 864 0587.