Duke School Under the Oak Magazine, Fall 2017

“I like that we actually ended up shooting down
in Atlanta because a lot of the landscape, a lot of
the neighborhoods—it looks like where we grew
up,” said Matt. “So it makes it feel more personal,
in a way. The woods look like the woods we grew
up with.”
The show’s 1980s horror-film atmosphere
and predominantly school-aged cast further
underscores the connection to the brothers’
childhood.
“I think that’s why the show’s been so fun for us
and so much easier for us to write than other
things, because so much of it is so personal,”
said Matt. “The first thing we wrote was the kids
playing Dungeons & Dragons [in episode one],
and it just wrote itself in like 10 minutes. It was
so much fun because we grew up playing fantasy
games with our friends.”
(A second Dungeons & Dragons scene in season
one’s final episode includes a shout out to the
brothers’ early filmmaking partner Tristan Smith,
as the characters complete a mission for “King
Tristan.”)
Minor characters and locations in the Duffer
Brothers productions often take the names of
people and places the brothers know. In their
feature film Hidden, the young protagonist Zoe
wears a maroon jacket featuring her school’s
dragon mascot—a reference to Duke School. The
Duffers attended Duke School from kindergarten
through eighth grade.
“It’s interesting to think about if any of this
would have happened without Duke School, just
because it’s a place that allowed you to explore
your interests and really use your imagination,”
said Ross. “Obviously a lot of it came from our
parents—our dad’s a movie buff, and they’re both
so supportive of this—but certainly Duke School,
I’m sure, helped lead to this.”
Filmmaking is essentially “doing something
creative with a group of people, which is basically
what Duke School trained us to be able to do,”
said Matt. He also recalled one of his teachers
telling him he could do and be whatever he
wanted.
“That always stuck with me,” he said. “I have
this dream, and I want to be a director, and this
teacher is telling me that I can actually do that.
And I think it’s important to hear that when you’re
a kid.”
Wherever their future leads them, the brothers
continue to be driven by their backyard filmmaking
roots. Above all, they said, they hope to continue
doing what they have done since they were in the
third grade—telling stories that excite them.
“It’s so much work that you have to have fun
doing it, or else why are you doing it?” said Matt.
“Sometimes you forget though, and then you
take a step back and take it in and you’re like,
OK, we’re basically a bunch of children playing
with expensive toys. And all these actors, all these
kids, everyone—it’s just make believe. It’s sort of
silly in a way.”
“But, you know, it’s been a lot of fun.”
Laura Thompson ’98, attended Duke
School from second through eighth
grade. She began her journalism career
as a writer and co-editor for the Middle
School newspaper, “The Dragon’s
Roar.” She is now a writer and graphic
designer living in northern Virginia.
In 2001, Matt, Ross and their friend
Tristan Smith, made a short film, the Smuffer
Brothers, and entered it in a film festival in Shelby,
NC. Laura, an aspiring journalist at that time, saw the
potential for a “hometown boys make good” feature, so she
traveled to the film’s showing and awards ceremony. Not
only did the film win first place in its division, but Laura’s
article also won a national youth journalism award. Now, 16
years later, Duke School wanted to rekindle this magic by
having Laura—once again, write a feature story about her
Duke School friends!
UNDER THE OAK
31