MTSU Helps Host, Produce “Dear Rodeo” Music Video for Reba McEntire and Cody Johnson at Tennessee Miller Coliseum

MTSU’s Tennessee Miller Coliseum was the setting for a new music video by country music legend Reba McEntire and rising artist Cody Johnson. The video for their single, “Dear Rodeo,” which debuted in December, included production assistance from university students and alumni.

“I am so super-appreciative of the university allowing us to be here,” said the video’s producer, MTSU alumna Christen Pinkston. “It’s been really nice to see students and people excited about a video and an opportunity.”

Shooting the video at her alma mater was “really a full circle moment,” she added.

The video story line takes place just after a rodeo ends. Pinkston searched for rodeo arenas in the area, and when she came across Miller Coliseum, off West Thompson Lane in Murfreesboro, she realized “It’s part of MTSU. It was really cool to come to that realization.”

Beverly Keel, dean of the MTSU College of Media and Entertainment, said the project “emphasizes the teamwork and collaboration of MTSU.”

Multiple campus teams came together to help make it a reality, including Marketing and Communications, Media and Entertainment, Liberal Arts, Production Services and the staff that manages the coliseum, about six miles away from the main campus.

(Top row, from left) MTSU student worker Emily Oppmann, MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee, Media and Entertainment Dean Beverly Keel, student worker Sarah Oppmann and video field producer Kobe Hermann (Seated) Reba McEntire and Cody Johnson

Recently graduated Jones College of Business alumnus Kobe Hermann, an MTSU marketing assistant, served as the Oct. 1 shoot’s field producer, hiring the student crew and coordinating MTSU’s support. He said students weren’t informed about the identity of the musical artists until they arrived on set and all involved had to keep the production under wraps until the video’s release in December.

“Our students were involved in almost every aspect of this production, taking the stuff they’re learning in the classroom and applying it to a big name like Reba McEntire,” Hermann said.

Erin Featherston, a senior student worker pursuing her degree in theater, worked on lighting for the shoot and said she was excited about “getting that real hands-on experience.”

The video’s concept required turning the horse science coliseum into a dream-like setting. Students hung black paper over all of the space’s windows, cloaking the venue in darkness. At the song’s climax, McEntire and Johnson, followed by camera crews, strode toward the center of the coliseum’s dirt floor, each illuminated by spotlights. The singers, illuminated by a soft haze in the air created by fog machines, belted out the lyrics in sync with the original recording.

*Erin Featherston, a Middle Tennessee State University theatre student, works a spotlight for the “Dear Rodeo” music video shoot. MTSU photos by Andy Heidt.*

Student workers hustled to manipulate spotlights, run cameras and deal with audio. Nic Dugger, the technical producer of TNDV Television Inc. and an MTSU alumnus, was also on set and ran a live-stream interview of McEntire and Johnson from the coliseum floor.

“We have 52 employees now,” Dugger said of his company, “and the reason so many of those are MTSU graduates is because the core study that’s offered within the College of Media and Entertainment is so relevant to what we’re doing in the industry. It’s not similar to what we do—it’s what we do.

“When graduates come out of the program, they have the skill sets that I actually need,” he said. “It makes my job very easy.”

Tony Reyes, a freelance steady camera owner and operator, has been very successful since his graduation from MTSU in 2007, working for the Tennessee Titans and other big-name musicians.

“The hands-on activities [at MTSU] are massive,” he said. “The other thing that I think has helped me a lot being from MTSU is the networking.”