It is rare for the writer and producer Jonathan Nolan to open up his set to visitors. Mr. Nolan may not be as secretive as his big brother Christopher, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “Oppenheimer,” but his history of creating spoiler-filled dramas like “Westworld” has made him wary of giving the public a peek before a project is final.
These are not normal times, though. Mr. Nolan has put himself at the forefront of Hollywood’s push to get California to approve $750 million in tax rebates to help bring more TV and film production back to the state. And it is why he recently opened up the Southern California set of his hit Amazon Studios series, “Fallout,” to seven state lawmakers to show them the inner workings of a big-budget television operation that employs some 600 to 800 people daily, almost all of them local.
“Everything you see here, from the sets to the costumes to the props — every single item put in front of camera — has been made by teams of people,” Mr. Nolan said in an interview on the set.
“We should not be the only people doing this,” he added. “It’s crazy. This should be a wake-up call to everyone, all the studios.”
The drop-off in production in California, the heart of the film and TV industry for over a century, has been underway for years. But it accelerated sharply with the triple combination of the Covid pandemic, the industry’s dual strikes two years ago and the recent wildfires in and around Los Angeles. Film and television production in the region declined around 30 percent in the first three months of 2025 from the same time last year. Few big-budget movies or TV shows shoot in California at all.
Some of the production has moved elsewhere in the United States, to states like Georgia and New York, but also overseas. The change seemed to catch the attention of President Trump this week, prompting him to announce a 100 percent tariff on films coming from abroad. The White House walked back the announcement the next morning, saying no plans had been set. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California later countered with a proposal for a $7.5 billion federal tax credit for production in the United States.
But Hollywood’s attention remains mostly focused on bills chugging through the California Legislature, and pushed by Mr. Newsom, that would double the state’s annual tax credit to $750 million for filming in the state. That is where Mr. Nolan is focused as well.
The first season of “Fallout” was filmed primarily at soundstages in Brooklyn. (It also traveled to Namibia, South Africa and Utah to complete its initial eight episodes.) But lured in part by $25 million in tax rebates from California, and the notion that he should be filming the show where it is set, Mr. Nolan moved the production of the second season to just north of Los Angeles, in Santa Clarita. The physical move to the new studios, some of which he had used for his hit show “Westworld,” cost $6 million and required 77 trucks, he said.
Then, in early February, Mr. Nolan decided to urge other filmmakers to do the same. It was just weeks after the fires in Southern California tore through the neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Ten of his “Fallout” crew members lost their homes. When the first season of “Fallout” won Best Science Fiction Television Series at the Saturn Awards, he told the people in the audience that if they really wanted to help the fire victims, many of whom work in the business, they should move their projects to Los Angeles.
“As producers, we are not just here to save people money,” he said, adding an expletive to his speech.
His remarks set off a torrent of activity, and soon Mr. Nolan was reaching out to other filmmakers, engaging with state legislators and trying to persuade people to help him save the California film business.
“I heard from friends who hadn’t even budgeted for California for 20 years, filmmakers who hadn’t shot here for 10,” he said.
“A lot of folks are not shooting here because they’re not able to, and these are big-time directors, people who have clout,” he said. “But they look at the bottom line with their movies and say, ‘Can I make the movie with 30 percent less money?’ And the answer is no.”
California’s tax credit offers a 20 percent rebate for production costs, specifically excluding salaries for actors and directors. “Fallout” received an additional one-time 5 percent tax rebate from the state for relocating the show. Still, Mr. Nolan said, it was more expensive to shoot in California than in Brooklyn because New York’s credit is 30 percent and the state does not cap individual productions at $100 million, as California does. To compensate, he cut close to 18 days from the show’s overall production schedule.
With so few productions shooting in the state, he was able to hire all of his first-choice crew members, he said, which made filming on a shortened schedule easier. His two showrunners, Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, also live in the area, and most of the special-effects and postproduction work is done in Southern California, too.
“In our experience, especially on these bigger shows, the show has always improved when everyone’s in the same place,” he said.
One of the state lawmakers he invited to the show’s vast set was Senator Ben Allen, a Democrat whose district includes Hollywood. Mr. Allen, who has written one of the tax rebate bills being considered, said he was impressed by the scene, a Western town filled with stagecoaches, wood-paneled buildings and an old-timey sign pointing to the nearest saloon. A large handcrafted metal sign that served as an archway between two buildings read, “Welcome to Freeside.” (Fans of the video game that inspired the show, and the show itself, will understand.)
“We got to talk to people who have been doing this work for decades,” Mr. Allen said, “and they’ve unfortunately been spending more and more of their time in different parts of the world just to get work.”
Senator Suzette Valladares, a Republican whose district encompasses the Santa Clarita set, said her visit to the set motivated her to work ever harder to get the new bill passed.
“Part of the issue right now in California is that so many projects and priorities are operating at deficits, so this is a heavier lift than it’s been in the past,” she said. “When you have competing priorities and members from other parts of California that may not see as much production as we do in Southern California, we have to make those connections for them: This is 700,000 jobs, $600 billion in payroll.”
It is a sentiment that the actor Walton Goggins, who plays “The Ghoul” on the show, said he shared.
“The bedrock of this town is built on people that work in front of this camera, and people that work behind this camera, and without that, what is L.A.?” said Mr. Goggins, scratching at his full face of silicone makeup, fresh from shooting his final scene of the second season. “There are many other industries in Los Angeles, but this is why people come here. This is where you dream. That’s what this town is predicated on.”
Nicole Sperling covers Hollywood and the streaming industry. She has been a reporter for more than two decades.
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