{"id":106395,"date":"2020-10-27T20:00:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T20:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/?guid=037247c26507307b31d90143ff1e8eef"},"modified":"2020-10-27T20:00:03","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T20:00:03","slug":"meet-carrlyn-bathe-the-first-female-broadcaster-in-eas-nhl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2020\/10\/27\/meet-carrlyn-bathe-the-first-female-broadcaster-in-eas-nhl\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Carrlyn Bathe, The First Female Broadcaster In EA\u2019s NHL"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If you\u2019ve been playing NHL 21\u2019s Be A Pro mode, you might have heard a new voice commenting on your rookie season. Newcomer Carrlyn Bathe joins core broadcasters Ray Ferraro and James Cybulski in giving updates on your progress and discussing important milestones. She\u2019s no stranger to hockey: LA Kings fans should recognize her as she\u2019s been covering the team for Fox Sports West, but Bathe also has hockey in her blood: Her father, Frank, played for the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings, and she also grew up playing the sport. Bathe\u2019s role in NHL 21 marks her as the first female broadcasting voice in the franchise\u2019s history. We recently sat down with Bathe to discuss her role, and found out she\u2019s also taken a shine to gaming and streaming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Photo credit: Gus Jaimes<\/p>\n<\/article>\n

The New Be A Pro<\/h2>\n

This year, EA Vancouver gave its Be A Pro mode, where you chart your path from inexperienced rookie to NHL star, a huge upgrade, adding a new conversation system, likeability meters, and\u00a0presentation updates. The latter included involving the broadcasting team in presenting an authentic look at being in the spotlight as a highly touted up-and-comer. In the mode, the main commentator, James Cybulski, has his own radio show, where he comments on your efforts each game and how your season is going. He also brings along Ray Ferraro for an additional perspective.<\/p>\n

To round out this effort, Carrlyn Bathe was brought in to be another voice on your talent. \u201cI’m almost like what I am in real life \u2013\u00a0a rinkside reporter giving updates on what’s known as ‘the rookie’\u00a0throughout the game,\u201d Bathe explains. \u201cI give social-media updates, what I spoke with the coach in the morning about, and maybe how the teammates are feeling about the rookie. It’s literally all based around however the player is playing, and then my updates will come in throughout the game, kind of stating, \u2018Oh, was that a good choice?\u2019 \u2018Was that a bad choice?\u2019 Here’s how it reflected on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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via @CarrlynBathe<\/a><\/p>\n

Landing The Gig<\/h2>\n

A key connection brought Bathe to the role. Her husband, Mike Hammer, founder of enforcer-themed hockey-style brand Violent Gentlemen, is a big fan of the series, and one of his friends happens to be NHL 21 producer Sean \u201cRammer\u201d Ramjagsingh. \u201cRammer and my husband go way back, and a female voice is something they wanted to add to the game, \u201c Bathe says. \u201cRammer thought of me, thinking, \u2018Okay, well, this is something she does in real life.\u2019 And after speaking with him, I let him know, not only do I report for the Kings, I took four years of improv and comedy training at the Groundlings school in California;\u00a0like, that was something I always tied to my hosting resume. And I always thought that that helped me on camera and whatnot. Little did I know down the road, it would help me in a video game as well. So having that knowledge and having me in mind, I was one of the people that he submitted before his team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bathe had to submit samples, so the team could be certain she was the right fit for the role. \u201cI think it was one of my actual hits that I did during a game because I keep a big notebook or lots of notebooks, actually, little black notebooks, that I buy and keep them at my house, and I had leftover hits from one of my games and just recorded that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bathe got the seal of approval from the team, and quickly found out how different things are when it comes to providing her voice for a video game as opposed to the live action on the ice. \u201cIt was a crazy process, because they start planning for these games in what feels like a year in advance,\u201d Bathe says laughing. \u201cSo it’s crazy to think about like, \u2018Wow, I’ve been talking about this since last December. And the game is coming out in October. It’s so crazy. And having to keep it a secret the whole time was just really difficult, but I did it!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Photo credit: Katlyn Gambill<\/p>\n<\/article>\n

Getting In The Virtual Booth<\/h2>\n

Of course, when EA Vancouver and Bathe were in the planning stages last December, there\u2019s one thing they couldn\u2019t anticipate: COVID-19. The team had planned to fly Bathe into Vancouver to record her lines in the studio and were working with her to line it up with her schedule. Unfortunately, her free time to do so was in March, which was when everything had come to a head, forcing everyone\u00a0to quarantine and the NHL to shut down. \u201cI was just at home, and we had to figure out how to make it work,\u201d Bathe recalls. \u201cAnd luckily, they had experience recording remotely with James Cybulski and probably Ray [Ferraro] as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bathe ended up recording her lines over the summer in her home office; it took around five to six hours. \u201cI had to have like James [Cybulski] on one call, and me playing off of what he was saying,\u201d she explains. \u201cEach line of mine had to be teed up by him, so he would create the toss. And it’s created off of a bullet point on a Google Doc, so the creativity that James has in those moments is what fuels me to say the thing that I’m saying that everyone’s hearing in the game. We’ve got a rough idea of like, \u2018You’re the rookie, you just bought a new house, everybody on the team thinks he’s gonna play well, let’s see how that plays out.’ James gives an awesome toss, and then I go off of that and try and give my good one-liner.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bathe confirmed that Cybulski loves a good pun, and some of her favorite moments in the studio were when she got clever with one on the spot. There\u2019s a fruit pun she\u2019s especially proud of that she can\u2019t wait for others to hear in the game. \u201cShe had great chemistry with our existing team, namely James Cybulski, who she interacts with during each segment,\u201d says NHL 21 presentation lead David Pritchett. \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to her skill as a broadcaster that she was able to fit into our already established group with very little lead time. She felt like part of the team from the first minute in the recording studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took me about 15 minutes to get in the groove,\u201d Bathe adds. “Because it’s not just reporting, it’s voice acting. So you have the producer saying, \u2018Okay, now pretend you’re in an arena and raise your voice a little bit.\u2019 So, I think I’m yelling my line. He then says, \u2018All right, now do that and turn it up 5 to 10 notches.\u2019 \u00a0I’m like, \u2018Okay, so I’m gonna be screaming.\u2019 It feels like I’m literally yelling, and then you hear it in the game and you’re like, \u2018That sounds totally normal behind crowd noise!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n