Since Elle Fanning was 12 years old while filming her driving scene, it was illegal for her to actually drive, so they had a stunt person driving the car with a mini-steering wheel and monitor in the backseat. "What's weird is, that's legal." J.J. Abrams stated on the Blu-ray commentary.
Originally, when the boys were sitting and waiting for Alice Dainard to pick them up, they were supposed to just talk. However, J.J. Abrams heard the boys singing together between takes later on, and reshot the scene featuring them singing "My Sharona".
As teenagers, J.J. Abrams and his friend Matt Reeves (director of Cloverfield (2008) and Let Me In (2010)) were hired by Steven Spielberg to restore some of his Super 8 home movies.
Riley Griffiths (Charles Kaznyk) played an April Fool's prank on director J.J. Abrams during filming: "On the verge of crying, I told him I had lost my script, lost it at a mall in L.A., somebody took it, and it's online. He totally fell for it... I think I might have been more scared than J.J. I was trembling."
Steven Spielberg (a producer of the production) was reportedly on set many times throughout the course of filming. Director J.J. Abrams and Spielberg have both gone on record stating that the filming of this production was some of the most fun they have ever had on set.
Dakota Fanning: During the town hall meeting, for a brief second you can spot Elle Fanning's older sister among the assistants.
J.J. Abrams: [Kelvin] The gasoline station on the outskirts of town is named Kelvin Gasoline. Kelvin was the name of J.J. Abrams' grandfather. Abrams commonly uses this name in his work, such as "Kelvin Inman" from Lost (2004) and the USS Kelvin from Star Trek (2009).