<P> Actors auditioning for the children roles read lines from Stand By Me . The Duffer Brothers estimated they went through about a thousand different child actors for the roles . They noted that Wolfhard was already "a movie buff" of the films from the 1980s period and easily filled the role, while they found Matarazzo's audition to be much more authentic than most of the other audition tapes, and selected him after a single viewing of his audition tape . As casting was started immediately after Netflix greenlit the show, and prior to the scripts being fully completed, this allowed some of the actor's takes on the roles to reflect into the script . The casting of the young actors for Will and his friends had been done just after the first script was completed, and subsequent scripts incorporated aspects from these actors . The brothers said Modine provided significant input on the character of Dr. Brenner, whom they had not really fleshed out before as they considered him the hardest character to write for given his limited appearances within the narrative . </P> <P> In October 2016, it was announced that Schnapp and Keery had been promoted to the main cast for the second season, after each recurring in the first season, and that Sadie Sink and Dacre Montgomery would join the main cast as Max and Billy, respectively . Ryder, Harbour, Wolfhard, Brown, Matarazzo, McLaughlin, Dyer and Heaton also return for the season . Joining them in recurring roles include Sean Astin as Bob Newby, Paul Reiser as Owens, Linnea Berthelsen as Roman, and Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman . For Owens, the Duffer Brothers had referred to the character in their pitch to Netflix for the season as "Paul Reiser", and specifically alluded to Reiser's character Burke in Aliens, with Ross referencing James Cameron's casting choice for that film, saying, "(Cameron) thought people would inherently trust (Reiser) and it would be a twist". Reiser's son was a fan of Stranger Things, and gave his father an early appreciation of the series, so that by when the production called his agent about the role, Reiser was excited for the part . </P> <P> The brothers had desired to film the series around the Long Island area to match the initial Montauk concept . However, with filming scheduled to take place in November 2015, it was difficult to shoot in Long Island in the cold weather, and the production started scouting locations in and around the Atlanta, Georgia area . The brothers, who grew up in North Carolina, found many places that reminded them of their own childhoods in that area, and felt the area would work well with the narrative shift to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana . </P> <P> The filming of the first season began in November 2015 and was extensively done in Atlanta, Georgia, with the Duffer Brothers and Levy handling the direction of individual episodes . Jackson served as the basis of the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana . Other shooting locations included the Georgia Mental Health Institute as the Hawkins National Laboratory site, Bellwood Quarry, Patrick Henry High School in Stockbridge, Georgia, for the middle and high school scenes, Emory University's Continuing Education Department, the former city hall in Douglasville, Georgia, Georgia International Horse Park, the probate court in Butts County, Georgia, Old East Point Library and East Point First Baptist Church in East Point, Georgia, Fayetteville, Georgia, Stone Mountain Park, Palmetto, Georgia, and Winston, Georgia . Set work was done at Screen Gem Studios in Atlanta . The series was filmed with a Red Dragon digital camera . Filming for the first season concluded in early 2016 . </P>

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