Lights, camera… opportunity: when Stranger Things came to The Nucleus

Opportunity is this month’s theme at The Nucleus.

It’s hard to imagine a better real-world example than what happened when our space played host to a film crew working on One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things Season 5.

The opportunity came about at short notice. Production company Wolfshoulder were looking for a local venue to film an interview with renowned prosthetic make-up artist Barrie Gower, of BGFX, whose work features heavily in the series. 

While Barrie lives locally, his studio wasn’t large enough to accommodate a full film crew, lighting and sound equipment. After searching for and contacting several local venues, Wolfshoulder got in touch with The Nucleus, and we were able to say yes, and fast!

Within a day, the crew transformed one of our meeting rooms into a professional recording studio. Over the course of four hours, the crew carefully set up lighting, cameras and sound, creating a calm, controlled environment ready for filming. 

The interview itself lasted just ten minutes, but those minutes now form part of a globally released Netflix production, released this week. After filming wrapped, the team spent a further two hours packing everything down, returning the space exactly as they found it. And we were sworn to secrecy!

Centre Manager, Kim, and the team welcomed Matt Bell, Director, on the shoot, along with the rest of the crew. 

Feedback from Wolfshoulder was overwhelmingly positive. They praised the flexibility of the space, how accommodating the team were, and how smoothly everything ran, especially given the tight turnaround and technical demands of the shoot.

Just wanted to say a massive thank you again from me and my crew for you making everything so easy. Your team were a credit to you and they were super helpful throughout.

For us, this experience perfectly captures what opportunity at The Nucleus looks like in practice. It’s about being open, responsive and ready to support unexpected but exciting requests, whether that’s a start-up scaling quickly, a collaboration forming overnight, or a Netflix production needing a professional, adaptable space!

You never quite know what might walk through the doors at The Nucleus. 

Sometimes, it’s a film crew bringing a little slice of Hawkins, Indiana reminding us that opportunity often arrives when you’re prepared to say yes.