Pablo ‘Macho’ Maysonet IV
He is the man behind The Reaper’s Image Dollar Baby Film.
SKSM: Could you start with telling me a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do?
Pablo Maysonet: I’m a filmmaker working out of Los Angeles who specializes in the horror genre. Over the past 14 years I’ve produced over 16 films. 3 of which were feature films that all got international distribution.
SKSM: How would you decide that shoot movies was your mission?
Pablo Maysonet: I gradually got into filmmaking by accident. At the time I was a video editor and was in the process of producing a short film for a local music group. Once that fell apart I was so attached to the video concept that I felt it could be a short film. From there we eventually developed a feature film and decided to give that a try. I fell in love with the process of storytelling through film. The rest is history.
SKSM: The reaper’s image Dollar Baby it was going to be a stop motion animated Dollar Baby but never was filmed. Could you tell us a little bit more about it?
Pablo Maysonet: The short film was an awesome idea but I didn’t want to shoot it as a traditional film. One or two existed before then and I just didn’t want to repeat the same old stuff. As a filmmaker you try not to repeat yourself and instead create something different and challenge yourself. We ended up developing a very unique way of stop motion animation and figured the story would lend itself perfectly to it. Although it was a very tedious process the results were amazing. Unfortunately we were also in the process of developing my third feature film. Since the reaper’s image would’ve taken a very long time to finish, it ended up being put on hold indefinitely while we developed my third feature.
SKSM: Who would be involved into this project?
Pablo Maysonet: It would’ve been an extremely small project considering it would all be voice acting. We did approach a few “horror icons” to do some voice work on the film but shortly after we cancelled it.
SKSM: How come you picked The reaper’s image to develop into a movie? What is it in the story that you like so much?
Pablo Maysonet: I like the mystery behind the story. Some of the most intriguing stories to me are ones that contain objects that have no explanation on why they have the powers they do. It’s a short but grim story.
SKSM: Did you know that this story has already been filmed as Dollar Baby? Have you seen any of these adaptations? If so, what do you think about it?
Pablo Maysonet: At the time when we received our contract to my knowledge there was only maybe one or two. After we moved on from our short we saw more and more pop up. I have not seen any of those.
SKSM: I know you are a Stephen King fan but, which are your favorite works and adaptations?
Pablo Maysonet: My all-time favorite horror movie is “Creepshow”. Which is both an adaption and original work from Stephen. But besides that one it would be a tie between “The Stand” and “It”.
SKSM: How did you find out that King sold the movie rights to some of his stories for just $1?
Pablo Maysonet: I accidentally stumbled upon it. I was researching Stephen for another project and discovered the dollar baby program.
SKSM: What are you working nowadays?
Pablo Maysonet: Most recently I’ve been doing a lot of behind the scenes work on film and TV for several major studios in LA. In between shooting and editing these projects I’m developing two features of my own. We’ve gotten great responses from producers interested in working on them, so we’ll see what happens.
SKSM: What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?
Pablo Maysonet: I am a former two division martial arts national champion.
SKSM: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Is there anything you want to say to our readers?
Pablo Maysonet: Thanks for all the support and hopefully I’ll be able to work on more Stephen King projects in the near future.
SKSM: Would you like to add something else to this interview?
Pablo Maysonet: Nothing else thanks for reaching out.
