Marshall Dixon

Marshall Joseph "Joey" Dixon is a University of New Mexico film student whom Jimmy McGill hires as his own personal camera operator for Saul Goodman Productions. By 2004, Marshall teaches a film class.

History[]

Better Call Saul[]

Season 1[]

After being ordered to take down his billboard by HHM, Jimmy hires Marshall and Phil to film him pleading for sympathy. During the shoot, a former client of Jimmy's, whom he hired to pose as a billboard worker, intentionally falls off the ledge, allowing Jimmy to rush to the man's aid and be hailed as a hero. Marshall films the whole ordeal and the footage later ends up on the news, bringing much attention to Jimmy's law firm. ("Hero")

Season 2[]

Jimmy calls Marshall and Phil to Geraldine Strauss' house to film a commercial for Davis & Main. ("Amarillo")

Jimmy has a meeting with Marshall and Phil about making another commercial for his own law firm. ("Inflatable")

Jimmy takes Marshall, Phil and an elderly man named Fudge to a military base in order to get some footage for his commercial. He has Fudge pose as a mute World War II veteran so they can shoot in front of a rare plane. ("Fifi")

Jimmy takes Marshall, Phil and Sherry to a local elementary school. Once the students have gone inside from recess, they set up on the playground, with the crew being positioned to film Jimmy standing in front of the flagpole. The shoot is interrupted when the school administrators come out, preparing to kick them out for trespassing. Jimmy manages to talk them down by convincing them that he's doing a documentary on a famous individual who went to the school, specifically Rupert Holmes. Though the makeup artist tries to protest that Holmes was actually from Britain, Jimmy is able to charm the administrators into acquiescing to his requests. ("Nailed")

Season 3[]

Jimmy offers to record a commercial for the owners of a carpet store, however they refuse his proposal. After delivering this news to Marshall, Phil, Sherry suggests that they instead shoot a commercial for himself to boost business. Jimmy and the crew drive to a TV station to shoot an unrehearsed ad in front of the station's antennae and satellite dishes. ("Off Brand")

After shooting a commercial for Duke City Recliners, Jimmy decides to keep most of the proceeds for himself because he paid for airtime out of his own pockets. Marshall protests and orders Jimmy divide it evenly, but Jimmy refuses. Next, they go to ABQ In Tune in yet another failed venture to make some money as the music store owners refuse to pay any amount for the commercial which Jimmy has to shoot for free (with a verbal agreement Jimmy gets paid for more commercials in the future) while still paying his interns. ("Expenses")

The next day, Jimmy returns asking for a down payment of $6500 from the ABQ In Tune owners to proceed with 7 more commercials who refuse despite the fact the commercial actually did bring in more customers. As retribution, Jimmy conducts a plan to feign a loose drumstick on the floor and makes Marshall record the incident, thus successfully forcing the owners to pay up. ("Slip")

Season 4[]

As part of his plan to save Huell Babineaux from going to jail, Jimmy hires Marshall and his crew to help him trick ADA Suzanne Ericsen. After the plan works, Jimmy gives Marshall's crew orders on how to handle future phone calls and reminds Marshall that they are paid for the whole day when he asks about if they just have to sit there. ("Coushatta")

A year after Chuck's suicide, Marshall and Phil are hired to cover the dedication of the Charles L. McGill Reading Room and they interview Howard Hamlin. The two thank Howard on behalf of the whole school, and act confused when Howard says that is not the one who donated the library. ("Winner")

Season 5[]

At the courthouse, Marshall’s film crew ambush Bill Oakley as he walks by. They’re posing as TV reporters who confront Oakley over a case her heard nothing about. Saul Goodman enters the scene posing as a false defendant attorney. ("Magic Man")

At the nail salon, Jimmy tasks Marshall's film crew with re-editing an old Mesa Verde commercial in which a young Kevin and his father appear. Jimmy wants to produce the video for the next day, so the crew tinkers with a green screen and hires a few locals to shoot that night inside the salon. ("Wexler v. Goodman")

Season 6[]

Marshall and his crew are hired again by Jimmy to take pictures of an actor posing as Rand Casimiro taking a bribe from Jimmy as part of his and Kim Wexler's con against Howard Hamlin. ("Axe and Grind")

Marshall is teaching a film class when Jimmy pulls him out of class to reshoot the scene after discovering that Casimiro has broken his arm. After haggling over pricing, Marshall agrees, although he is less than pleased when Kim uses his camera tape in the actor's cast. After taking the pictures, Marshall develops them for Jimmy and Kim who rush the pictures to one of Jimmy's accomplices who is posing as Howard's private investigator. ("Plan and Execution")

Personality and traits[]

Marshall is best described as an impudent, aloof and greedy young man with abysmal social skills. He's quite disrespectful to Jimmy, often picking fights with him especially if it's about money. Consequently, Jimmy disrespects Marshall in return. Marshall's aloofness is shown when his fellow production crew and Jimmy are in a difficult circumstance since Marshall seems to not care as long as he is paid the amount he is owed. When teaching, he is shown to continue his rude behaviour to his class.

Although Marshall exhibits many negative traits, he is shown to have a great passion for filmography; going as far as not allowing anyone to touch his camera and considering his camera to be an extension of himself. When paid the correct amount and allowed to film, Marshall, along with the rest of the production crew, are able to create successful ads and other works for Jimmy.

Appearances[]

Better Call Saul[]

Trivia[]

• Marshall's last name comes from a newspaper article shown on AMC's story sync for episode 4, "Hero".^[1]
• In a 2022 supplemental web series "Filmmaker Training," Joey is referred to as Marshall, having been renamed to this.^[2]
• During an AMA on reddit^[3] that took place on July 25, 2022, Josh Fadem said about his character's name conflict: "The golden question in the filmcrew-verse. Okay here's what I know to recap. season 1 the prop dept named him Joey Dixon in a newspaper prop article, people zoomed in and could see the name. Named after the editors. Camera Guy was never addressed as Joey on screen. Vince said in a podcast they call him Kid Kubrick in the writer's room. Ariel Levine named us after the department heads so Marshall is what he goes by in that series... If I had to piece it together with my logic I would say his birth name is probably Marshall Joseph Dixon. When he was a kid he went by "joey" so that was probably an early year at college when the newspaper interviewed him about the billboard guy, so he gave the name Joey. Then he realized Marshall is more unique and distinguished and will benefit his filmmaking career so some point in college he started going by Marshall. I went to high school with a guy named Rob who's real first name was Hunter, then he grew up to become a camera man and started going by Hunter when he moved to LA... good guy"

References[]