We recently connected with Knox Marshall and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Knox thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?
My Pastor, a big movie fan, was very proud and happy upon learning I’d been accepted into USC’s Graduate Film Program, so he made it a lot easier for me to actually attend. Knowing I didn’t have much money, and that USC was very expensive, he made it known to a circle of people who wanted to support me that they could donate to a special fund through his independent ministry, making those donations tax deductible. He even donated about half of my first semester’s tuition himself. He’s since gone to his reward, but in a very real way, I have him to thank for my career.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My fascination with storytelling and showmanship, like many filmmakers, goes back to early childhood, absorbing as many Disney cartoons, books and records (that dates me!) as possible. I also had an appetite for mystery, sci-fi, horror and adventure, and found a wealth of these worlds in comics, sometimes at the local movie theater, and happily, in the old genre movies airing via the “creature features” collections broadcast every weekend on local TV. I staged puppet shows first, then with several friends, started making Super 8 movies, later migrating to video.
My parents never told me there was anything I couldn’t achieve, so I tried many aspects of film craft: set design, prop fabrication, special effects, costume design, lighting, and of course, acting, writing and directing. I was just a crazy kid, exploring.
A turning point was when I first rode THE HAUNTED MANSION at Walt Disney World (multiple times), an attraction that fused my loves of the whimsical and the creepy. To this day, my favorite stories, the ones I really dive into with gusto, are those which blend a sense of heartwarming “feels” with mystery and scary thrills. Its ILLUSIONS also gripped me – “How do they do that!?” and I spent many years learning more about special effects and filmic processes to replicate those tricks – almost all of which were first pioneered in cinema.
I gave my life to Jesus Christ at age 12, and at age 15, determined to serve Him however He wanted. After initially studying for the ministry, God threw me a left curve and called me into film – a pursuit I’d already surrendered, but for which He’d been preparing me my whole life. I switched majors from Pulpit Communication to Theater (my college had no film program), and after graduating, was accepted to USC’s Graduate Film Program.
That took me to Los Angeles, and within a few years I was writing screenplays, living on a little development money from some very kind (and trusting) gentlemen back east. A few friends joined me, again from the east coast, to help with the film effort. Those early investors wanted to see us in production soon, so I raised nearly a million bucks to produce our first film, which I also wrote and directed. We had a very green crew, I was certainly green and didn’t prepare as fully as I should have, and we were about 3 shooting days short of what we really needed on the schedule. We also had a very expensive senior actor who behaved like a prima donna, and cost us a lot of precious time. The result had some fine moments, but overall, we ended up with an admittedly mediocre motion picture. Kind of like a Disney Sunday Movie. It didn’t help that two weeks before we began to shoot, Disney Studios itself announced production of a movie with a very similar plot, a $50 million budget – and Bruce Willis! Nevertheless, the experience was tremendous and from that point on, I kept pretty busy as a freelancer, writing scripts for independent producers and animation studios.
Over my career, I’ve been attached to some wonderful projects, most of which never ultimately were produced. (Independent producers can often raise funds to hire writers, and they need writers so they can raise money for their film budgets, but there’s a big difference between raising $150,000 in development money, and raising multiple millions for production.) Along the way, I like to think my writing has gotten stronger and stronger, and I’ve made some fantastic friends and allies, who humble me and inspire a lot of gratitude – keeping me accountable both creatively and as a good human.
A sci-fi/adventure project I’d pitched for TV animation, “Dax Zander: Sea Patrol,” brought me a lot of work writing animated projects – so much I had to set it aside. But ideas kept coming, and eventually I turned the initial ideas into a book series. Two volumes have published, more are on the way. The Dax books are almost like vacations – I can cross the universe with characters I know intimately, and live through vicariously. Indescribable fun.
Two years ago, my best friend, another close friend and I joined forces as Imagination Bay Entertainment. Adding the work of two other storytelling partners, IBE currently curates over 5 dozen stories, scripts and treatments for film and TV, animation, live-action, and games. Our titles are all positive and full of heart, possessed of redemptive, aspirational themes, embracing traditional values like truth, family, community, mercy and personal accountability.
Someone might ask what my principal role is at IBE. I am happy to inhabit the role of Chief Storyteller, if for no other reason than that I write almost every day. My partners are immensely talented storytellers also – I simply called dibs on that moniker before either of them thought to. :) Also, I’d be a terrible candidate for CFO…
Imagination Bay holds that anything we produce must hew to at least two of three criteria (optimally all three!), as we feel ethically bound to develop projects that earn a profit for our investors, and for our company, to ensure longevity and competitive sustainability in the marketplace. Those criteria are:
1) Mass Market Appeal.
2) Obvious Merchandising Opportunities
3) Franchise-Launching Potential
So, following this game plan, we are curating stories that “pop” – no films or TV shows about farm foreclosures, a miraculous healing from cancer, or other “domestic dramas”. Others are making these films well, but even then, they have a hard time making a profit for their funders. So we’ll lean into genres: sci-fi, adventure, fantasy, mystery, high-concept comedies and high-octane historical/legendary subjects.
In a short time we’ve made some outstanding allies and while we’re raising funds for several different titles, it LOOKS like our first motion pictures will be animated.
Over the course of the last year, we’ve had great conversations with potential investors for funding. Some of those conversations are ongoing, and we’re meeting new people all the time. If you don’t have a few million you can risk on incredibly speculative ventures, we humbly ask for your prayers – not just that we reach our funding goals – but that we remain accountable, responsible, and humble. Prayer is powerful.
If you dozed off through all that – I’m a very grateful guy whom God has blessed with a love of story, and I’m now having a blast developing and writing films, TV shows and video games with terrific friends, pursuing a master plan of impacting culture via beautifully told tales that will thrill, touch the heart, and hopefully, stir human beings to become BETTER.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
The short version is, we want to warm the hearts of a global culture that, in losing any context of God and His intention as Creator, seems to have lost its basic humanity. Therefore, most of our work will be aimed at mainstream audiences, with a wholesome, elegantly subtle, “God is here” context. Stories where mercy, grace, humility, kindness, love and compassion come natural to our characters, exhibiting values emanating originally from the heart of God.
Because Imagination Bay’s partners are Christians, with a desire to introduce others to Jesus, we will ALSO occasionally produce overtly and unapologetically evangelical stories – but only when the concepts feel irresistible and absolutely fresh. There’s not much point making those kinds of films for Christians (“preaching to the choir”) – so we will insist these productions contain stories that draw mainstream audiences, and give them something compelling and life-changing to think about. This is never easy, but it’s definitely possible, and our first stories toward this end are fantastic.
We’re looking specifically for potential production and funding partners who really want to impact culture for the better – to offer great alternatives for families, for young adults, kids and even mature adults- an audience that’s been largely betrayed by many flavors of unsavory messaging infecting so much of modern entertainment. We’re glad we’re not the only ones with these sorts of plans, but we are passionate about telling great stories, and creating the very best films, shows and video games in the industry.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
A couple of years ago, I was persuaded to look into NFTs by some people who made a great case for the new phenomenon. My gut kept telling me, “this is about people buying something they can’t really hold in their hands.” And while there probably are paradigms for assessing value on the ephemeral, the finicky nature of what actually provides value in NFTs feels too loosy-goosy (some might say the same for perception and media influencers affecting the stock market’s ups and downs). So I have soured on NFTs. And in the intervening time, it seems the bloom is off the rose. I readily admit this is not my field of expertise.
I should note that I feel differently about cryptocurrency – more accurately, I’ve not made up my mind. I like the idea of a decentralized currency, but I’m not smart enough in financial matters to really judge whether this is a safe alternative, given that the government might clamp down and just swallow the whole thing – and then suddenly it’s not decentralized at all. This is a separate issue, but tangent, as I think for most (or all?) NFTs, you’re purchasing using bitcoin or other crypto.
In short, while I guess you can make a case for limited purchasing appeal (skins in video games being an obvious example), at this present time I don’t see genuine value in purchasing “collectibles” that don’t exist in physical space. And ethically, if I don’t believe in it, I’m certainly not going to attempt to get someone else to spend money on it.
Contact Info:
- Website: imaginationbay.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imaginationbayent/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imaginationbay
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-knox-marshall-06b7b06/
- Twitter: @NKnoxMarshall
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ImaginationBay
- Other: http://www.daxzander.com