“I think about quitting music hundreds of times a day. But I can keep going if we team up like this. It’s so much fun making music.” SUGA of BTS discussed both the joys and agony of music in his first solo documentary, SUGA: Road to D-DAY. j-hope of BTS endured the pressures of arranging music and choreographing but in the end declared, “I know I’m ready. I’m not worried about anything. I just have to do it like I usually do,” in his documentary j-hope IN THE BOX, showing us another, even cooler side of himself. These two documentaries are on-brand with HYBE’s documentaries of their artists. In j-hope IN THE BOX, j-hope perched on the sofa, telling his father on the phone that they can’t meet because he had to work on his music, and him sitting in front of his computer, working non-stop is edited into one single frame. Of course, this isn’t realistic at all. But what this sort of editing does is show us how real the struggles these artists are facing are, as they pour all their time into their craft, unable to spare some for anything else. BTS’ speech at the UN plays over a scene of the members spending a peaceful day at the park instead of them at the UN General Assembly in Bring the Soul. Senior producer Park Joon-soo of Original Content Production Office explains: “That’s the reality, though. Their speech at the UN is in a way, another performance on stage. I wanted to show people that even superstar BTS are youthful 20-somethings who have the same worries and spend ordinary days, off stage.” 

Making music, dancing, and performing is their livelihood and a long-awaited dream come true. But a life of coming up with an album that fans all over the world are looking forward to, and putting on concerts is completely different from that of their peers. Themes like music, life, and practical thoughts about the meaning of music in life run through all the HYBE artist documentaries including those on the individual BTS members, as well as teams as a whole such as, Burn The Stage, Bring The Soul, Break The Silence, j-hope IN THE BOX and SUGA : Road to D-DAY, LE SSERAFIM’s The World Is My Oyster, SEVENTEEN’s SEVENTEEN : HIT THE ROAD. Park explains that “When BTS goes on tour, the total volume of video recorded amounts to 120 to 150 terabytes which takes at least a year to mold into a documentary.” Therefore, documentary production is a process of extracting the most important questions and answers to the team and members during that period, out of the enormous pile of recordings. Park and Bang Woo-jeong CSL (Creative Studios Leader) summarize the history of BTS documentaries as follows: (BTS’) was growing in steps which we weren’t able to fully show in the short behind the scenes videos which is why the theme for Burn The Stage was growth. BTS wanted to share everything with their fans, so we wanted to show them what processes BTS went through with what was on their minds to begin calling for the fans to Love Yourself in Bring The Soul, which is why the album concept, Love yourself became the theme. Break the Silence shows BTS members who have now cemented their status as superstars ask themselves if they are happy. And finally, Beyond The Star will skim through the past 10 years of BTS after they have walked the path that they have. Bang commented that, “the members love being on stage but as they amassed more fans, and performed in larger venues, they say that the emptiness that follows a big performance is that much larger. Sometimes it’s physically taxing, and they’re wondering how much longer they’ll be able to continue, but they love being on stage, nonetheless.” The documentaries follow the activities of the artists and portray their complex jumble of anguish, worry, joy, and happiness as their creations take shape. The acronyms of all BTS documentary titles are homonyms of their team name, i.e. it’s symbolic in the way that the documentaries themselves are BTS. The films illustrate the glory of the team and living as individuals to paint a multi-dimensional picture of life as BTS.  

“LE SSERAFIM really put everything they had into preparing.” As Jung Ji-hye of Source Music’s Marketing Team points out, LE SSERAFIM’s documentary The World is My Oyster illustrates the realities that the members faced before they debuted as LE SSERAFIM. They shed tears after getting feedback during practice, found themselves shrinking ever smaller from past critiques and feeling intimidated by other members’ impressive careers. Unlike BTS, who featured in their documentaries from when they began to really catapult to superstar status, LE SSERAFIM, who are filmed from the moment of their debut show us the realities faced by an idol group debuting in a vivid way. Team Leader Koo Mi-kyung of HYBE’s Digital Communication Team explains that LE SSERAFIM members “tend to naturally express how much they want to improve and become the best.” The World is My Oyster clearly depicts how strong-willed the members were pre-debut, the reason behind choosing this particular team, and their desire to succeed which resonated with a lot of female viewers and sent the internet sphere abuzz. The entire process of the members’ vocal and dance practice, psychological counseling, and management, to coming up with concepts and branding, all made possible with the involvement of dozens of staff members intensely illustrates the amount of effort, the number of people it takes, and what sort of job it is to get a group to debut. This sheds light on how important and pressing debuting is to LE SSERAFIM members. Koo clearly explains what these documentaries mean to HYBE artists. “A third debut, a second debut, one giving up going to college in the States, one giving up her career as a ballerina, the only one who spent time as a trainee after auditioning - this is a rare window into how all these different narratives came together to form one single group.” The real lives of these people that have been overshadowed by their jobs as idols coalesce with the team's promotional activities.  

SEVENTEEN : HIT THE ROAD shows us how important the team is to each member of SEVENTEEN. This film begins and ends with the story of SEVENTEEN, the team, with 13 episodes – one for each member’s story - in between. Each of the 13 members who run on similar frequencies, yet still retain distinct, individual colors set out to tell their own stories. And this is how each members’ lives that are connected to a single team called SEVENTEEN come to light. “It’s not that it was our goal to portray SEVENTEEN as a tight-knit team. It’s just that they really do spend a lot of time together,” Part Leader Lee Yoon-ju of Pledis’ Marketing Part 1 explained. Members grow their friendship while they work within SEVENTEEN and create a community that they need for themselves. “They hang out and tease each other whenever they get bored daily. It’s no surprise that we end up with videos after videos of them gathering into Late Night Snack, Dinner, and Meal Pods of six or seven and eating together even if they don’t share rooms. Based on this incredibly strong bond that they formed, SEVENTEEN created a “narrative of starting with 13 members, but seeing some bumps along the way, which gave the remaining members a sense of duty to see it through to the end for the members who stopped along the way and believing that all 13 of them will eventually perform together.” “WOOZI is interviewed in his studio and S.COUPS in the audience facing the large stage to show that they are SEVENTEEN’s musical producer, and leader of the group, respectively.” The concert venue and studio aren’t just places. They symbolize what each members’ roles are, and their thoughts about their jobs. Each member thinks of the team in their own way. This became the driving force behind SEVENTEEN that pushed them to gather in a tiny practice studio to come up with their own songs and choreographies, which led them to their current superstardom. At the close of each episode, a black-and-white video of the members still in their trainee years or practicing in their studio is juxtaposed with SEVENTEEN in the middle of their eye-catching performance on stage. This shows us that their path of being an idol and artist, as well as SEVENTEEN’s growth and youthful years are still on going, all the while ruminating on the black and white past that eventually shaped their dazzling present.

“Let’s show them just as they are, but we're confident just as they are. We don’t need to lie or fake it,” confesses Bang, offering us a glimpse into the philosophy of HYBE artist documentary production, of illustrating what is beyond the artists’ truth and reality, to the frank portrayal of their music and lives. Video recording itself is a deliberate act because it’s done with the artists’ consent, but none of the content was staged. Except for the few montages that were filmed for inserts by asking the artists to, say, “look out the window,” everything was filmed without any directing at all. This was possible because “as the ever-growing size of the concert venue shows us, BTS has truly grown a lot, but their passion and grit is unwavering regardless of it being their first or last performance. We were concerned that there was too much repetition by the end.” Jung explains that she filmed LE SSERAFIM just as they are, as they were determined to not act like they’re humble, just like the lyrics from their song “FEARLESS.” “There are people who like them for who they are, more so than when they’re acting. We’ve come to an age where showing your true colors is the most natural thing to do.” She explains that they included the adorable scene where the youngest member EUNCHAE pockets a few pouches of Capri Sun for the other members while they are declaring their ambitions: “I’ll do well,” “I want to do well,” “I’ll take over the world no matter what” because that’s how she naturally behaves.  

To quote SUGA: Road to D-DAY, “The past is nothing but the past. The present is nothing but the present. The future is nothing but the future.” Although documentaries vividly capture the present at the time, that scene is nothing but the past the moment it is captured on camera. The reason why documentaries not only keep record of the incredible popularity and glory on stage, but also of the anguish and hard work of the artist as a person is to close any sense of distance the fans may feel between themselves and the artists. According to Lee, SEVENTEEN : HIT THE ROAD reflects the artists’ desires to show their true selves behind and off stage, just as they are, to CARAT. They showed the fans the side of themselves that they couldn’t show before and closed that gap. According to Park, “as BTS got closer and closer to becoming a superstar, the people who love BTS could feel more and more distanced from them.” Ultimately, the team decided to show BTS as 20-somethings who have the same thoughts as their peers through the documentary to “make the wall as thin as possible.” In essence, showing the artists just as they are is indeed a way to candidly reveal the inner workings of the people who are living extraordinary lives as artists, but at the same time, it is a way for us to see that they, too, have unresolved questions, and are looking for happiness just like the fans, which makes us feel like they are one of us.  

“I know what it feels like to pour my heart and soul into something to achieve something,” “I tried new things, suffered through ordeals, experienced growth pains, and there were moments of youthfulness that not even I knew I had,” “I’m feeling regret in the sense that I hate getting lazy,” “I want to work even harder whenever I see these documentaries.” The reason why so many people ruminate on their past having watched HYBE artists live out their intense lives is because perhaps these artists, and their truth deeply resonated with them. “(At the time of LE SSERAFIM’s debut) everyone had to overcome challenges. I'm sure they are bubbly too, but the fear or uncertainty that the artists feel when they're facing a challenge yet again is something that a lot of us can empathize with. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the people who led fierce lives were portrayed as frolicking in a flower garden all cute and carefree?” What Koo described might also be about the role these documentaries play in general, which is to convey both the works and lives of people who chose to be an idol as a career path; to create an opportunity for the fans to deeply understand idols as people and connect with them. The process of a giant industry turning its gears begins with someone’s unavoidable sincerity.