A drone, rental truck and curly red wig: how Chappell Roan's viral Sask.-focused teaser was produced
Regina-based marketer calls video shoot 'a whirlwind' and a dream experience
In a teaser for her upcoming single, Chappell Roan's signature red hair can be seen fluttering against blue Prairie sky, out the open window of a moving van, as the singer coos that if her longing for her ex isn't gone in four months, "I'm movin' to Saskatchewan."
The video opens on a Saskatchewan licence plate, features canola fields and grain bins and ends just as the moving van drives past the "Welcome to Saskatchewan: Land of Living Skies" border sign.
The video left some wondering if Roan actually came to the province to film the teaser for The Subway single. Unfortunately for fans, the answer is no.
The red hair was a wig, according to Jill Dukart, a content creator with Regina-based marketing company Captive Media that filmed the teaser.
"I curled it to look like her hair," Dukart said.
Roan has been name-dropping Saskatchewan for over a year, whenever she performs The Subway live, but the singer released the single on Thursday with a music video coming out the next morning.
The Saskatchewan-laden teaser video for the single dropped last week.
It's sparked increased interest in the Prairie province online, especially among local fans. Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski told CBC Kids News he is "thrilled" about the mention, writing in an emailed statement, "It's not every day that a Grammy-winning artist gives Saskatchewan a lyrical shoutout."
How it happened
"No one ever talks about Saskatchewan. No one even knows how to pronounce it," Dukart said. "Having this huge star sing about us, pronounce it properly" is great to see, she said.
Dukart described making the teaser video as "a whirlwind" and a dream experience. It all started with a phone call from Universal Music Group Canada asking if Captive Media would be interested in helping out one of their artists.
The team agreed and asked for a follow-up email with more details, Dukart said.
"The title of the e-mail was 'Confidential Chappell Roan Social Media Campaign,'" and we all start freaking out," Dukart said.
She said Universal Music Group Canada gave little direction for the footage, only asking the agency to rent a moving van, film it driving it past the welcome to Saskatchewan sign at the border — iPhone footage would do — and get a Saskatchewan licence plate with the song's title.
But Dukart said the team wanted to go bigger and do their best to show off Saskatchewan with different shot options.
"We went with a drone and everything," Dukart said. "I think it was more than they were expecting."
She said the team is very happy seeing the attention the footage has received.
They did it all on a tight timeline. The request came on a Friday, Dukart said, and "they wanted the footage by Tuesday, so we scrambled all weekend to make it happen."
The team's designer made the vanity Saskatchewan licence plate with the label THE SBWY by wrapping an existing licence plate. They secured a moving truck and a driver, but the red wig that Universal Music Group Canada initially planned to expedite wouldn't make it on time, Dukart said.
"They asked us to find one."
Driver stands in for singer
Dukart picked up Roan's stand-in locks at a Regina wig store.
As for who wore the red wig in the singer's absence, "it was actually the worker from the company that we rented the moving truck from," Dukart said.
In a 2024 interview with Canadian music journalist Nardwuar the Human Serviette, Roan said she "owes it" to fans to actually come to the province.
"I can't sing a song about Saskatchewan and not go there and play a show," Roan said.
She said she was looking at venues to try to make it happen.
Saskatchewan MLA Nathaniel Teed, who is openly gay, and the Opposition NDP put out a statement saying they would love to collaborate "on an act of joyful queer resistance" and welcome Chappell to Saskatchewan.
In The Subway, Roan laments an ex-lover with green hair and a beauty mark, whose perfume haunts her.
"I'm still counting down all of the days 'till you're another girl on the subway," she sings in the post-chorus.
Dukart said she can't stop singing the song ahead of its official release.
"I think it's going to be bumping in the office for a while. We can't stop playing Pink Pony Club around here."
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With files from Joelle Seal