Pick the best CMT breakthrough video

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: DIRECTOR'S CHOICE

2008 winner: "I Wonder," by Kellie Pickler
Director: George Flanigen and Robert Deaton
The video's plot:
It's a heartfelt look back at Pickler's upbringing, countered by images of her current success. She's depicted on tour warmly received by fans, then sings to a person who wasn't there "to braid my hair, like mothers do." Pickler was a child when her mother left home; her grandparents raised her.
How it came together
FLANIGEN: "Everyone knew Kellie from American Idol. But no one had ever seen her like this before. The video was about Kellie wondering if her mom realizes what her little girl has become. She gets off a tour bus and is greeted by adoring fans and performs. When she sings this song, there's a moment when she looks offstage and sees a little girl, who represents Kellie. She gives Kellie a smile, and Kellie understands that everything is going to be OK.

"Kellie had reservations about exposing herself like this. But she told us, 'If we're going to do it, let's do it the right way, because anything less simply won't work.' We shot the entire thing in a day. Kellie spent about 16 hours on the shoot. We booked the Ryman Auditorium [in Nashville] for the concert part. This was perfect because the Ryman is a place where you play when you've 'made it.' It's the mother church of country music, where Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn and all the legends played.

"We shot the concert part late at the Ryman that night. So, as you can imagine, all of us were pretty exhausted. And that was the first time Kellie actually sang the song that day, so it hit us on an even greater emotional level. When we were finally finished, she broke down and cried."