Duke School Under the Oak Magazine, Fall 2017

Since then, the Duffers have been immersed in
expanding the story, taking their characters to
new places and trying to improve on their own
work.
“It’s not like you watch season one and you’re
like ‘Wow, we knocked that out of the park,’”
said Matt. “Even when we first finished it, you
basically just see everything that’s wrong with it.
The good thing about being successful is you get
another chance at bat, and the hope is that you
do it better.”
said Matt. “It’s starting to happen. You get the
kernel of an idea—wouldn’t this be cool, wouldn’t
this be interesting, wouldn’t this type of a world or
concept or setting lend itself to a cool story? And
then you just kind of dream about it. Eventually
we’ll sit down together and start hashing out
what it would look like.”
“But that’s so far off right now because Stranger
Things is our lives—it’s our weekends, it’s often
our nights. So you don’t have a lot of time to think
about other things.”
The Duffers estimate they have story ideas to fill
at least four seasons. For now, though, they are
focused on season two.
“We really just try
to do what we did
first season, which
is block everything
out and all the
noise and just try
to focus on telling
a story we thought
was cool and put
everything into it,”
said Ross. “I don’t
think we’re going
to keep doing this
if we think we’ve
nailed it. I think the
hope is that we can
keep doing it better and better.”
Looking forward, looking back
The process of writing, directing and producing
an original story can be all consuming, but the
Duffers still want to make room for the kind
of spontaneity,
excitement and
wonder that first
drew them to
filmmaking.
“I think there’s
a sense of fun
where it’s not
overly planned,
where there’s an
opportunity to
surprise yourself
Photo Credit James Minchin/Netflix
On the set of Stranger Things, Season 1
every day and
to try to have as
much fun as we can
making it,” said
Ross. “That’s what it was when we were making
those movies back in middle school and high
school.”
The success of Stranger Things has opened doors
for the Duffers to continue expanding their career
possibilities. Offers to direct other projects have
started coming in, and the brothers are also
thinking about new stories they want to create
themselves.
“You just start to daydream about other ideas,”
The world of Stranger Things draws a number of
details from the Duffers’ early life. Viewers familiar
with the brothers’ hometown will notice that the
fictional Hawkins bears some resemblance to
Durham. The Byers family, for example, lives near
the corner of Cornwallis and Kerley roads, a reallife
intersection not far from Duke School and
from the brothers’ childhood home.
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UNDER THE OAK