Bs the members of KATSEYE, the new global girl group of the Korean company HYBE and the American company Geffen Records, in the last part of the Dream Academy It was terrifying to be part of the competition series in November 2023. Ten girls, ages 15 to 21, stood on stage holding hands, exhausted from months of grueling training. Only six were selected for the highly anticipated girls’ group.

Pop Star Academy: KATSEYEthe new Netflix series, which was shot over the course of 18 months by Become Director Nadia Hallgren puts the entire process that led to this moment into raw, nuanced context. Over the course of eight episodes, we see more than 20 young hopefuls, selected from over 120,000 international applications, turn their lives upside down to participate in an intensive training and development program in Los Angeles. While the elite athlete-level physical training the girls and young women undergo is daunting in itself, Pop Star Academy shows how the psychological pressure becomes the hardest part. The girls don’t know if all that hard work will earn them a spot in the group or if they’ll be sent home the next day. They start the program not knowing that they’ll eventually be asked to take part in a months-long survival competition where potential fans vote on their fate. And many of them do all this thousands of miles away from their primary support systems, in a culture that’s not their own.

While the docuseries could have simply been KATSEYE’s getting-to-know-you story, it goes much deeper, giving us insight into the decision-making processes of two of the biggest pop music companies in the world and not shying away from how those decisions affect the (often young) people at the shiny center of it all. Here’s what you need to know about Pop Star Academy: Katseye and what it takes to create a global girl group.

The K-Pop Trainee Process

In the documentary Light up the skyWhen Blackpink member Jennie was asked what defines K-pop, she said it is the trainee system, where young people sign with music companies and take years of lessons in skills such as singing, dancing, foreign languages, and media training.

It’s the process that sets Korean idol pop stars apart from most U.S. and Western acts, and that Hallgren focuses on. Pop Star Academy Narrative. “One reason I personally wanted to do this show was because I’m particularly interested in human potential and what it takes to be at the level of elite performers, whether it’s a sports star or a pop star,” Hallgren says. “We see a lot of male characters in stories doing that, just being really tough, and to see that in girls, that’s what inspires me every day.”

This includes a focus on the instructors involved in the training. Hallgren noted that they had to struggle to incorporate them into the story. “The girls are the most interesting, but we needed the context of what they were going through… I was very curious about the process of taking someone with a very low skill level to an expert, especially in such a short period of time.”

She adds: “A lot of my research says it’s about putting people in the right place at the right time, based on their skill level and developmental capacity, and then assigning them the right teachers at the right time.”

Hallgren hopes this framework will also provide a familiar entry point for viewers less familiar with the K-pop education process, as well as 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 about the opportunity to direct Pop Star Academyshe seized the opportunity. She was worried about being labeled a documentary filmmaker who only covered serious topics – like the story of three Puerto Rican women who were forced from their homes by Hurricane Maria, in After Mary– she was excited to immerse herself in the world of pop culture and music. “I’m not always a serious person,” she says, laughing over Zoom. “I work seriously, but that’s about it.”

Hallgren was also keen to delve into the complex lives of teenage girls on the verge of making it big. “I worked with a lot of well-known people, but they were all out there in the world before me and had already established their way of dealing with the public and things like that,” says Hallgren, who has previously made documentaries about former First Lady Michelle Obama and American civil rights lawyer Ben Crump. “It was also interesting for me to think about how young people are growing up with social media today.”

The production presented a number of challenges. Hallgren lives in New York, while much of the filming took place in Los Angeles or Korea. She also had a young child to care for during filming, which made travel more complicated. To bring the ambitious project to life, she relied on a proven team, including co-director and creative partner Lauren Cioffi. The team shot over a year and a half in the style of cinéma vérité, a documentary format that aims for authenticity and incorporates the possibility of spontaneity into the production process.

They weren’t always sure which “storylines” or “characters” would make it into the final series, Hallgren says, especially while following a process that had several twists and turns – including the reveal that the trainees would participate in a survival program to determine the final lineup.

“It was more than unpredictable,” says Hallgren. “We were just as confused as the trainees. Sometimes we thought: ‘What is going on now?’ ‘How can we switch from what we are doing to something else in one fell swoop?'”

It was also a challenge to build trust with so many documentary subjects at once. “It was an ensemble,” Hallgren says of the trainees, trainers and executives who were followed over the course of the show. “Usually I’m one-on-one with someone to unravel the intricacies of their inner life that they may not even be aware of. And then I did that with young women and teenage girls.” Hallgren, who had just had a daughter of her own, was excited about the challenge – and the trainees’ integrity made it easier. “Every young person who went through that program was incredible,” Hallgren says. “They were kindhearted. They were incredible communicators. They were complex and they looked out for each other.”

The end and a new beginning

In the last episode of Pop Star Academy: KATSEYEwe see the Dream Academy Once again, it’s the announcement ceremony, but this time through Hallgren’s lens. We hear the girls whispering backstage as they prepare for their lives to change forever: “We’re going to spend the rest of our lives together!” Sylvia, who has been the girls’ voice teacher for nearly two years, hides behind a curtain, almost too scared to watch. Project manager Missy, who has been with the girls since day one, braces herself for impact, ready to pick up the pieces wherever they may fall.

Hallgren recalls the logistical difficulties of filming these moments during a live show. “We really took a very documentary approach to get to the emotional core of that moment.” She assigned one camera to voice teachers Gabe and Sylvia and one to dance teacher Nikky. “The backstage stuff with the girls was really challenging,” she says. “It was dark, so we really tried hard to use the sounds of their microphones to create a lot of the tension and excitement that came from them, because it was really hard to see anything.”

After the announcement, one crew was assigned to the trainees who did not make it to the final round and one to the new members of KATSEYE. Hallgren chose the former and captured a heartbreaking scene in which Adela, a trainee who did not make it to the first round of the Dream Academy “Vote,” consoles Emily, a trainee who was eliminated last night.

“The way they hug at the end even gives me goosebumps,” says Hallgren. “No words are needed.”

Ultimately, Manon, Sophia, Daniela, Lara, Megan and Yoonchae were selected to debut as a “global” girl group by KATSEYE, HYBE and Geffen. The individual members of the Los Angeles-based band hail from the United States, Korea, Switzerland and the Philippines and include the first artists of Indian, Filipino, Latino and Black identity to be signed to Korean music giant HYBE. On August 16, a week before Pop Star Academy Hit Netflix, KATSEYE have released their first EP: SIS (Soft is strong)“I think my biggest fear in releasing a project like this is what impact it would have on them,” says Hallgren a few days after Pop Star Academy is coming to Netflix. The trainees and KATSEYE members have seen the finished product and given Hallgren feedback. “They feel like this was a really accurate representation of their experience,” she says, adding that it allowed them to reflect on what was “a crazy experience” for everyone involved.

What does Hallgren hope other viewers take away from the show? “You can have all the talent in the world, you can have the best education and the best schools if you have access to it, but can you mentally battle through it and make it to the end?” she says. “I think these girls have shown that in a way that most adults I know haven’t. And I’ve worked with a lot of high-level people. That’s really an important takeaway that I hope people take away from the show: what people go through to fulfill their dream of becoming an artist.”