When the members of KATSEYE, the new global girl group from Korea’s HYBE and America’s Geffen Records, were announced live on YouTube and Weverse in the final part of the Dream Academy competition series in November 2023, it was excruciating to watch. Ten girls, ranging from age 15 to 21, stood on stage holding hands, exhausted from months of breakneck training. Only six would be chosen for the much-anticipated girl group.
Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE, the new Netflix series that was shot over the course of 18 months by Becoming director Nadia Hallgren, puts the entire process leading up to that moment in raw, nuanced context. Over the course of eight episodes, we watch more than 20 young hopefuls selected from over 120,000 international applications upend their lives to undertake an intensive training and development program in Los Angeles. While the elite athlete-level of physical conditioning the girls and young women go through is daunting on its own, Pop Star Academy shows how the mental pressure becomes the most difficult part. The girls don’t know if all of the hard work will lead to a spot in the group, or if they will be sent home the next day. They start the program not knowing they will eventually be asked to compete in a months-long competition survival show with would-be fans voting on their fate. And many of them do all of this thousands of miles away from their primary support systems, in a culture that is not their own.
While the docuseries could have simply been the get-to-know-you story of KATSEYE, it goes much deeper, giving us perspective into the decision-making processes of two of the biggest pop music companies on the planet, and not shying away from how those decisions impact the (often young) people at the shiny center of it all. Here’s what to know about Pop Star Academy: Katseye and what it takes to make a global girl group.
The K-pop trainee process
In documentary Light Up the Sky, when Blackpink member Jennie was asked what defines K-pop, she said it was the trainee system, which sees young people signing with music companies for years of classes in skills such as vocals, dance, foreign language, and media training.
It’s the process that sets Korean idol pop stars apart from most U.S. and Western acts, and one that Hallgren puts at the center of the Pop Star Academy narrative. “One reason why I personally wanted to do this show was I have a particular interest in human potential and what it takes to perform at the level of elite performers, whether it be as sports or pop stars,” Hallgren says. “We see a lot of male characters do that in stories, just being really tough and to be able to see that in girls, that's the stuff that inspires me every day.”
This includes a focus on the instructors involved in the trainee process, something Hallgren noted they had to fight to include in the story. “The girls are the most interesting, but we needed the context as to what they were going through … I was very curious about the process of being able to take someone with a very low skill level and grow them to a place where they are an expert, especially in a really short time.”
She adds: “A lot of the research that I've done [says] it's positioning people in the right place at the right time, based on their skill level and their ability to grow, and then giving them the right teachers at the times that they need.”
Hallgren hopes this framing also gives viewers who are less familiar with the K-pop trainee process a familiar entry point for those who love formats like reality TV dance shows or talent programs.
Behind the scenes of Pop Star Academy
When Hallgren was first approached by Netflix with the opportunity to direct Pop Star Academy, she jumped at the chance. Wary of being pigeon-holed as a documentarian who only covers serious subjects—such as the story of three Puerto Rican women, displaced from their homes by Hurricane Maria, in After Maria—she was excited to delve into the arena of pop culture and music. “I’m not always a serious person,” she says with a laugh, over Zoom. “I work seriously, but that's about it.”
Hallgren was also eager to delve into the complex lives of teen girls on the cusp of stardom. “I've worked with lots of high profile people, but they're all people who have been out in the world before I came along, and the way that they sort of managed the public and things like that, they already had established,” says Hallgren, who previously directed documentaries that followed former First Lady Michelle Obama and American civil rights attorney Ben Crump. “It was also interesting for me to think about the ways in which young people grow up now, with social media.”
The production would come with its fair share of challenges. Hallgren is based in New York, whereas much of the filming was done in Los Angeles or Korea. She also had a young child to parent during production, which made travel more complicated. She relied on a trusted team, including co-director and creative partner Lauren Cioffi, to execute the ambitious project. The team filmed for over a year and a half, working in the cinema verite style, a fly-on-the-wall documentary format that aims for authenticity and incorporates the possibility for spontaneity into the production process.
They were not always sure which “storylines” or “characters” would make the final series, Hallgren says, particularly while following a process that had several twists and turns—including the reveal that the trainees would be participating in a survival program to determine the final lineup.
“It was beyond unpredictable,” says Hallgren. “We were as confused as the trainees. Sometimes we were like, ‘What is going on now?’ ‘How do we pivot from what we were doing to something else on a dime?’"
It was also a challenge to build trust with so many documentary subjects at once. “It was an ensemble,” says Hallgren of the trainees, instructors, and execs followed over the course of the show. “Usually, I'm one-on-one with someone to unravel these intricacies of their inner life that they may not even be aware of. And then I was doing it with young women and teen girls.” Hallgren, who had just had a daughter of her own, was excited for the challenge—and it was made easier by the integrity of the trainees. “Every young person that went through that program was amazing,” says Hallgren. “They were kind-hearted. They were incredible communicators. They were complex, and they looked out for each other.”
The end, and a new beginning
In the final episode of Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE, we see the Dream Academy announcement ceremony once again, but this time through Hallgren’s lens. We hear the girls whisper backstage, as they prepare to have their lives changed forever: “We’re gonna spend the rest of our lives together!” Sylvia, the girls’ vocal instructor for almost two years, hides behind a curtain, almost too afraid to watch. Project manager Missy, who has been with the girls since the first day, braces for impact, ready to pick up the pieces wherever they may fall.
Hallgren recalls the logistical difficulties of shooting these moments during what was also a live show. “We really approached it in a very documentary way, getting to the emotional heart of this moment.” She assigned a camera to vocal instructors Gabe and Sylvia, and one to dance instructor Nikky. “The backstage stuff with the girls was really challenging,” she says. “It was dark, so we really worked to use the sound-ups on their mics to create a lot of the tension and the excitement coming from them, because it was really hard to see.”
After the announcement, one crew was assigned to the trainees that didn’t make the final group and one was assigned to the new members of KATSEYE. Hallgren went with the former, capturing a heartbreaking scene in which Adela, a trainee eliminated in the first round of Dream Academy voting, comforts Emily, a trainee eliminated on the final night.
“The way they hug at the end, I even have chills now,” says Hallgren. “You don't need words.”
Ultimately, Manon, Sophia, Daniela, Lara, Megan, and Yoonchae were selected to debut as KATSEYE, HYBE and Geffen’s “global” girl group. Based in Los Angeles, the individual members hail from across the United States, Korea, Switzerland, and the Philippines, and include the first artists of Indian, Filipino, Latina, and Black identity to be signed under Korean music giant HYBE. On August 16th, a week before Pop Star Academy hit Netflix, KATSEYE released their first EP: SIS (Soft is Strong). “I think my biggest fear of putting out a project like this is how it would impact them,” says Hallgren, a few days after Pop Star Academy hits Netflix. The trainees and KATSEYE members have seen the finished product, and have given feedback to Hallgren. “They feel this was a really accurate portrayal of their experience,” she says, adding that it has allowed them to reflect on what was “a crazy experience” for everyone involved.
What does Hallgren hope other viewers will take away from the show? “You can have all the talent in the world, you could have the best training and the fancy schools, if you have access, but can you mentally push through to get to the end?” she says. “I think that these girls demonstrated this in a way that most adults I know can't do. And I've worked with a lot of high level people. That's really a big takeaway that I hope people get from the show: what people will endure to fulfill the dream they have of being an artist.”
