After La Hilfires, David E. Kelly is located in California

Filming was about to start in the David E. Kelly series from Apple TV+ “Margo’s Got Money Probles” in early January when forest fires hit the Los Angeles region, Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

The crew members lost their homes or were dealing with severe smoke damage. Others took people displaced to their homes.

In addition to the uncertainty, the series was still waiting for hearing whether it would receive tax credit on movies and television.

It is time to make a decision, Kelly and his fellow producers thought. Should they run it safe and move to cheaper photography language, such as New Mexico or Vancouver, to ensure that they get the budget to photograph the mid -season of the central season in Las Vegas?

They took a gamble and decided to stay in California. Betting pays off. “Margo” has a tax credit of about $ 1.2 million per episode, and the show was able to shoot in the Los Angeles area and travel to Las Vegas for four days of filming.

“The rest of the story is the story of California,” said Matthew Tinker, President of David E. Celly Products. “It is really magic to leave Los Angeles, go to Vigas and then return, and the offer gives a huge production value otherwise, we had no.”

Since film and television projects have increased from the state in search of better tax incentives and cheaper costs – moves that gave the number of Hollywood jobs – the Kelly production company in California is doubled. The former lawyer, who turned into the producer’s writer, is one of the biggest names on television behind the legal drama such as “ALY McBeal” and “The Practice”.

All his current projects will be launched in Los Angeles, including the third season of the HBO “Big Little Lies”, and the legal drama “The Lincoln Lawyer”, a new series of HBO Max based on Michael Connellly entitled “Nightshade”, which is held on the island of Santa Catalina, and the three “concept The innocent.

The post -production work was also carried out for its offers at La Kelley, known as David E. Kelley Productions, which recently moved to a new headquarters in Santa Monica, where it plans to create a house for the expected future.

“It is wrong for me that Los Angeles does not continue to be a center for cinematic and television series,” Kelly said on Zoom in August. “This city was very good for me for many years, so I have a tendency not to abandon it, to stick to a society that was rewarding for me.”

Feelings are shared by the second leader.

From the concrete surface garden over the Santa Monica building, which includes the production office in Kelly, Tinker looked at the hills, remembering the smoke wall that remains for several days.

Forest fires in January also encouraged the decision to keep the production company in Kelly in Los Angeles, despite some stadiums out of the state. At that time, there was a gossip in the industry that the state incentives program would be strengthened, which gives some optimism to the future production future. But after the fires, there was no doubt. The company has witnessed the need to rebuild and re -invest in Los Angeles and Hollywood. This summer eventually strengthened the film and television cinematic program this summer.

“The fires challenged our elasticity and our feeling of society, but the people of Los Angeles are a crowd,” Tinker said. “There was no idea after this moment to grow roots anywhere.”

The 2900 square feet office, which is a new building, replaced an old building in Santa Monica, elegant and modern, with concrete walls, floors, dark wooden details, corridor games and shelves unit with dozens of prizes in the heart of the area. Inside the Tinker office is a tribute to Hollywood’s history.

An old mark from the previous Kelly offices in The Fox LOT hanging on the wall, next to the title page for the first episode of “Margo”, directed to David and signed by actor Elle Fanning. A picture of Ronald Reagan is located with the grandfather of Matthew Tinker Grant Tinker, former NBC CEO, near Bobhamid from “Boston Legal” days in Kelly and shooting Matthew’s father, John Tenner, who won Emmy’s writing for “Other St.” drama in 1986.

When looking back in his career, Matthew Tinker “every function in the sun”, which was only possible in the city that was constantly working on many products.

This concern for the future of employment in industry was a major part of the Hollywood legislative batch and the state to increase the annual financing of the California Film and Television Credit Program to $ 750 million and expand eligibility standards to allow more projects to apply.

These changes, which were approved by the governor of Gavin News, this summer, has largely entered into force and began to achieve results.

In the first round of tax credits for television programs since the program renewed, the California Film Committee has witnessed a 400 % increase in requests and gave tax credits to a total of 22 shows.

“There was a lot of pent -up demand,” said Colin Bell, CEO of the California Film Committee. “There is a lot of momentum here, and these improvements on the program helped lead this momentum.”

There is an urgent need for the new activity. The production activity in Los Angeles has decreased so far this year by 9 % compared to last year, according to the non -profit film Filmla, which tracks the days of photography in Greater La 2024, the second year recorded for production in the region after 2020, when the industry was closed because of the epidemic.

But there is hope on the horizon – among the 22 new TV projects that received tax credit in California in the last round, is scheduled to be depicted 18 to the Greater Los Angeles, including “assumed innocent” Kelly.

“The more people who hope for the future of California as a production destination, I think you will continue to see entrepreneurs and others who do their career here,” said Filmla spokesman Philip Sukoloski.

Since Los Angeles is more expensive than other sites, movie makers must make certain adjustments, such as filming a TV series in 85 days instead of 100, or reducing daily shooting hours.

This is very implemented with experienced Los Angeles.

“There is such an infrastructure in Los Angeles,” she said. “There is no educational curve.”

Kelly’s production company, which includes six employees including the veteran writer and producer, may not be able to shoot everything in Los Angeles, but executives intend to keep Los Angeles first and above all in decision -making and hopes that the mentality will bring it throughout the city.

“The goal is to always look at California first,” said Tinker.