IndexConceptionDevelopmentInfluencesScriptingCastingProductionVisual EffectsMusicMarketingReleaseReceptionConclusion: Critical ResponseStranger Things, released in 2016, pays homage to the 1980s and the cult classics of that era. Brought to the Netflix streaming service, it took the world by storm, not only through the nostalgia of the show but also through the lovable cast, who have since become the most followed cast on social media thanks to the show's release. Stranger Things is set in the 1980s in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, and follows the story of the disappearance of Will Byers, played by Noah Schnapp, through the eyes of his friends Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas. (Caleb McLaughlin) as they meet a girl with psychokinetic abilities played by Millie Bobby Brown. This plot runs alongside two others; one showing Will's mother Joyce, played by Winona Rider, trying to find her son with the town's Sheriff Hopper (David Harbour) and the other following Will and Mike's older brothers as they battle the supernatural, as well as against trials and tribulations. of high school. Stranger Things features multiple different age groups to follow through the story arc and so it's interesting to see how this has contributed to it being a successful show and, looking at the production and concept, what brought the show to Netflix which made it made it such a huge success. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayConceptionBehind the creation of the show are the Duffer brothers: Matt and Ross. After the production of the 2015 film Hidden, which unfortunately did not get a wide release, the Duffer brothers were unsure what the future held for them, however they were approached by Donald De Line, a television producer, who was impressed by the their script. for Hidden and then offered them the opportunity to work alongside M. Night Shyamalan in Wayward Pines. Later, under Shymalan's guidance, the brothers felt they were ready to produce their own television series. Development The Duffer brothers created a three-page screenplay and 20-page pitch book that they took to multiple networks, all of which rejected the idea after pitching. It was said that a plot focusing on children as main characters would not work, and most networks asked to focus on Hopper's investigation. After being broadcast to fifteen networks, the script was brought to Shawn Levy, who founded the production company 21 Laps and saw potential in the script. As he said to the Beast "You knew you were in for an experience." Levy worked with Dan Cohen, who would become a co-executive producer on the series, to bring the script to Netflix. The Duffer brothers said that Netflix likes to "break the rules" and so, since we were at the beginning of the "streaming boom" and the Netflix landscape looks very different than it does today, they took a big risk. After reading the pilot, Netflix purchased the entire season for an undisclosed amount and was subsequently scheduled for a 2016 release. Influences The Duffer Brothers were heavily influenced by pop culture, particularly classic film and television of the 1990s '80. Among others, Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter and Stephen King have been named as major influences. The Duffers said their influences come from a thousand different places, and while there are a couple of intentional homages, "we're not the ones trying to find moments to pay homage to things." This is shown throughout the series through small propspositioned around the set. They are not particularly noticeable but are placed in such a way that those who it will resonate with due to nostalgia will be able to recognize the objects, an example being the Trapper Keeper memorabilia shown with Nancy and Barb. The three generations' storylines in the show were imagined with their own mood and setting, inspired by different movie genres: kids in adventure films, like The Goonies or Stand By Me; teenagers in a classic horror film, such as John Carpenter's Halloween or Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street; adults in a classic Spielberg film, like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Using all of these elements as inspiration, the series successfully targets many demographic groups by dividing the storylines into three different genres and themes. Scripting Since Netflix doesn't limit The Duffer Brothers to the typical 22-episode format, the brothers opted for an eight-episode approach. Because they wanted to "tell a cinematic story", they were cautious that a 22-episode broadcast would make this difficult. With an eight-episode format, it allowed the brothers to carry out the narrative development and characterization as they had envisioned and also, thanks to Netflix distribution, allowed them to explore the ambiguity within the series that would carried well into the planned subsequent seasons. Speaking to The Beast, Ross explained that within the writers' room the biggest discussions, especially early on, were about how to capture the feel of these films. their television and imbuing it with something otherworldly. Such discussions have led, for example, to Christmas lights. For example, let's take something very ordinary and really make it come alive in a very different way.' In terms of writing for different age groups, the Duffer brothers, who considered themselves outcasts, used personal experiences to write for children and Barb and were inspired by Richard Dreyfuss' character Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third like, for Joyce's character. Casting Both Duffer brothers noted that “everyone realized very early on that if we had even one child who wasn't good, the whole ship would collapse. So we started looking very, very early. At that point we only had the pilot script and we had so little material that we were auditioning them with the “Stand By Me” scenes.” They managed to find a fantastic cast of four children, which the team was used to shaping their performances in the script. It was also revealed in 2015 that Winona Ryder and David Harbor had both joined the cast, which began to create buzz for the show through Winona's reappearance and her success in the '80s classics. Production Below, a figure shows the production timeline from when filming of the first season was moved to 2020, when filming of the fourth season had to be postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. With this timeline, you can see that it didn't take long for new seasons to be given the "green light" by Netflix, proving the success of the show. Additionally, you can see that they took similar amounts of time to shoot the show, and the filming duration included multiple takes so that there were more options to choose from to find the right shot. Visual Effects To achieve the nostalgic feel, a film grain was added to the footage, captured via 1980s film scan. Both brothers agreed that "it was much more about mood, atmosphere, suspense and terror than blood", and therefore walked away