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Bandit Illuminates Caylee Hammack’s Debut Album Event at the Steel Mill

USA – Caylee Hammack is used to making the most of a hard situation, so she wasn’t about to let a pandemic stand in the way of her first album’s debut. After experiencing heartbreak, losing a college scholarship and later her belongings to house fire, she poured her hurt and heart into If It Wasn’t for You which launched on 14 August.

To celebrate the release, Hammack recorded performances for future, virtual television appearances. The rising singer-songwriter utilised the full production studio at the Steel Mill with its 60’ x 40’ stage area and an impressive Bandit Lites-supplied lighting rig comprised of over one hundred moving fixtures, including the new Chauvet R2X LED washes and a grandMA2 Full console.

“Caylee was scheduled to support both Reba McEntire and Rascal Flatts this past summer and we were looking extremely forward to working with her and her staff on those tours,” said Bandit Lites vice president Mike Golden. “Since those tours didn’t materialize, we thought we would not have any opportunity to work with Ms. Hammack until her team expressed interest in the system in place at Steel Mill.”

Tour manager Braden Griffith praised the space as incredible, noting: “All the companies did an amazing job with set-up. Everyone was so accommodating and made the project a success.”

“Ever since I first saw the set-up, I fell in love with it,” said Griffith. “The pods above really caught my attention, plus with more than a hundred fixtures, it’s going to look cool! As soon as I heard of the idea of this live stream event, I recommended the Steel Mill as a location, and luckily for us, it all worked it out!”

Lighting designer Craig Richter programmed a show that evoked the looks seen on a tour, working with MooTV to get the video content and colour schemes to match for each song.

“I used most of the wash fixtures to try and back light the band and artist as much as possible and keep them off any black spots that the camera was picking up,” said Richter. “The Sharpys And X4s fixtures I used to cut through the ambient light and create some separation from different band members as well as off the back black out curtain. From there I just tried to complement the music and help create the mood and vibe of each song.”

“We had an extremely quick turnaround for this to happen and within 48 hours, Craig came in and had a full show for a whole album he had never heard before, and killed it,” lauded Griffith.

Richter also utilised the rig’s octagon pods, giving some big powerful scenes as well as taking the time to work the cells on the ACL 360 Bars for more subtle looks that blend everything together. He also had to balance a short window of time to craft moments that translated well on screen and would match continuity needs during editing.

“They were recording 13 songs and all to be taped and released at a later date, so busking the show is not the ideal option,” Richter explained. “If I had busked the show and they wanted to go back and shoot something again, it would make continuity very difficult, so by cue stacking each song we were able to run any song as much as we wanted or needed to and it would always look the same on every take when played back.”

“What stood out most of all was the professionalism and accommodations,” said Griffith. “Caylee is a very fast-growing artist, but we are still limited on crew at this stage. The Bandit team came in and again with an extremely quick turnaround, put in a lot of hard work, and I could not be happier with the finished project.”

“It was a sincere honour and pleasure to work with the Caylee Hammack team at the Steel Mill,” finished Golden. “The folks at UMG were fantastic and our many thanks go to tour manager Braden Griffith for his input and help. We are looking forward to working with Caylee Hammack next year when she hits the road for what will be an exciting tour.

21st August 2020

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