Pause, Rabbit, Death | TRYHARD RADIO 004 (Almost Died on Set)
- Oklahoma Ward
- Sep 21
- 12 min read
"TANK doesn’t sleep — and neither do we. Week by week, we’re bleeding through the cut… and loving it."
Behind-the-scenes updates, production news, and indie filmmaking insights from Oklahoma Ward
📚 TABLE OF CONTENTS
🎬 PRODUCTION BREAKING NEWS
Production Breaking News – Inside the TRYHARD COMPANY Blog
Final Edit Pass — Episode One in MotionThe war for Episode One is raging forward.
I’m deep into the Edit Four final pass — the last edit before lock — and the progress has leapt forward in a big way since last week.
But instead of handing you a number, I’ll just say this: the fight is alive and burning. If you want to see just how far we’ve come — head over to Episode One’s page and check it out for yourself.
🔥 Along the way, another 22 special effects shots have been completed, bringing the episode closer to final form.
Meanwhile, the Red Tank suit build is nearly finished. Every piece is falling into place for a reveal that will shake things up.
And yes — we’re gearing up to reattempt the opening sequence with the dog this Wednesday on Nikki’s day off. If it lands, it’ll be the very first image of the entire series, captured exactly how it was always intended.
🛠️ PROJECT UPDATE: TRYHARD COMPANY
💬 Field Notes from the Director's Chair – Progress, Pressure, and the Push Forward.
⚡ Big Moves. Big Sets. Big Momentum.
This wasn’t just progress — this was a surge forward.
🔥 Edit Four Final Pass — Episode One is alive and burning forward. Instead of telling you where we’re at, I’ll just say this: the battle line has shifted a long way since last week. Want to see how far? Head into Episode One in the Command Center and find out for yourself.
🛠️ Major Set Builds — Construction is underway for one of the series’ biggest moments: Tank Meets the President inside a fortified underground bunker. At the same time, the Red Tank set is already halfway complete, laying the foundation for one of the most pivotal and explosive sequences in the entire series.
Red Tank is coming. And when she does, nothing will be the same.
🎬 Filming on Deck — Next up: we’re gearing to shoot the intro to the entire series with Tank and her dog, this time powered by the new Blackmagic app. Weather permitting — and if the dog decides his bone-bonus is enough — this could be the image that kicks off TRYHARD COMPANY for the world.
🎙️ Radio Rising — TRYHARD RADIO has shifted into gear. What started as raw transmissions is taking on a life of its own — sharpening into the voice of this world. By the time the edit is complete, the PR engine won’t just be running — it’ll be roaring, ready to deliver the full push with numbers and stats locked.
🚪 Enter the Command CenterDon’t just read about it — step inside. Episode One is waiting.
🔍 Curious where each episode stands?
The TRYHARD COMMAND CENTER gives you a live look at every mission — from edits to effects to final sound.
Every update. Every step. Every fight to the finish.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
(For access to all Episode Breakdowns)
🎙️ DIRECTOR'S THOUGHTS
Wires, Guts, and Everything in Between.
🎙️ Let’s cut to the truth...
Robert Redford and the Power of the Pause
When I got the news that Robert Redford had passed, my heart sank. Since I was a teenager, I’ve carried this dream: to one day meet him. To stand at Sundance, the festival he built, to be part of that fire. To maybe even see him on set one time. Shake his hand. Say, thank you.
I never got to. And now I never will.
👉 Robert Redford is one of the top five reasons I chose this life.
It had always been a dream of mine that one day, maybe, he’d be in one of my projects. Or I’d get the honor of working through the Sundance Film Institute he created. But that door has closed, and the lesson is clear: if you’ve got a dream, you have to chase it now. Because time is not promised.
What I do have, for the rest of my life, is the fire to keep pushing and to keep sharing just how great he was — not only to me, but to film, to acting, to indie grit itself.
And one of the things I always come back to is what I call: pause acting.
Most actors run their lines like robots. They think hitting inflection makes it human. But Redford — Redford stopped. He’d break rhythm mid-sentence, just like a real human brain does.
Script says: “I’m going to run over there.”Redford says: “I’m going to…” (pause, glance off, recalibrate) “…yeah, I’m going to run over there.”
That pause — that human hesitation — it’s magic. It turns written words into living thought. And he layered that kind of truth into everything he touched. Even with stage direction. If the script said, “look right,” he’d start to turn… stop… shift left first… then come back right. Always alive. Always unpredictable. Always real.
That was his gift.That’s why he’ll always be eternal.
I talk about more of this in the radio version of this blog — so be sure to listen if you want to hear me dig deeper into the things he did that set him apart.
And below, I’ve pulled together three examples of pause acting — moments where Redford showed exactly why he was the master.
Robert Redford wasn’t just an actor to me. He was a presence. A light. A living reminder of why I picked up a camera in the first place. He was — and will always be — one of the best.
🔍 Three Things I THINK I THINK - That Hit Me This Week on YouTube:
🎬: Example One: All the President’s Men
Start at about 3 minutes and 32 seconds into the clip below.
Watch Robert Redford in this telephone scene. On the page, the script probably just said: “He sits down and dials a number.” That’s it. A throwaway moment. But watch what Redford does.
He picks up the phone… goes to dial… stops.He picks up a notebook.He thinks. He hesitates. His face tells you he’s running multiple tracks of thought.
👉 That’s pause acting.
At 3:42, watch his eyebrows as he dials. Why that look? Because the character is thinking. About what he’s going to say. About how to say it. About something we don’t even need to know — and that’s exactly what makes it real.
Because that’s what our brains do. We don’t think one thing at a time. We think:
Pick up the phone.
What’s the cat doing?
Did I leave my keys in the car?
What’s the number again?
Oh God, what time is it?
Wait, is the stove still on?
Redford layered all of that into a simple action: dialing a phone. He let the pauses breathe. He let his character think in real time.
Look at how long it takes him to dial. You know that wasn’t in the script. No screenwriter wrote: “He dials the phone for five minutes.” That was Bob. That was instinct. That was him turning nothing into something.
👉 At 3:52, there’s a moment — subtle, almost nothing — but to me it’s everything. He makes a tiny choice that makes the character feel alive, and suddenly a scene that should have been invisible is unforgettable.
This is the difference. A lesser actor would have focused only on the lines that come after dialing. Redford made the dialing itself into a performance. A five-minute portrait of thought, hesitation, distraction, and decision.
That’s the craft. That’s why he was brilliant.Because he wasn’t acting. He was thinking. And that’s what we, the audience, recognize as human.
Example Two: Three Days of the Condor
🎥 Start this clip from the very beginning. Key moments at 0:10, 0:19, and 0:24.
This is classic Robert Redford pause acting.
At 0:10, there’s a knock at the door. Most actors? They’d just glance up, hit their line, and wait for their cue. Redford? He stops. He looks around. He lets you see him thinking. He’s not a character waiting for his line — he’s a person trying to decide what to do.
👉 That’s the difference. He’s not waiting for a cue. He’s living inside the moment.
At 0:19, when the man outside says, “Somebody has to sign for it,” Redford’s line is simply, “She’s not here.” But he doesn’t say it cleanly. He hesitates. He fumbles. He stumbles into the line:“Well she’s not, uh… well, she’s not here.”
That tiny crack of uncertainty? That’s how humans actually talk. That’s how we stall when we’re caught off guard. And that subtle pause makes the character feel real.
At 0:24, when he’s told he needs to sign, there’s no line written — but Redford makes it into a moment. He pauses, wrestling with what to do. And you can see the two sides of his brain fighting:
Hurry up, don’t be ridiculous, just sign it.
Wait… something’s off. Should I be scared? Should I stall?
👉 Redford lets the audience think with his character.
That’s why this works. He isn’t a superhero. He isn’t omniscient. He’s a man caught in the unknown, improvising on instinct.
And that’s what makes it human. That’s what draws us in.
Watch the whole scene. You’ll find at least seven more examples of pause acting scattered throughout. Do yourself a favor: pick a couple and write them down in the comments. Once you spot it, you’ll start seeing it in every Redford performance. And you’ll start asking yourself — as an actor, as a storyteller:
👉 How do I let my character think on screen?
🎥 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Jump to about 2 minutes and 24 seconds into the clip.
This is one of the most classic scenes in cinema — Paul Newman and Robert Redford, two legends at the absolute top of their game.
The script line is simple: Newman says “We’ll jump,” and Sundance fires back, “Like hell we will.”
Most actors? They’d deliver the line straight, either staring down the men who are about to kill them or turning to Newman and spitting it out. Not Redford.
👉 He pauses.
He stops. He glances down. He checks the drop. And in that pause, you see his character’s brain working:
Could we actually survive this?
Wait… no. No chance.
Then, and only then, does he deliver the line: “Like hell we will.”
It’s subtle. Most of the audience doesn’t even consciously notice it — they just laugh at the line. But the pause is what makes the line land. It lets the audience share that split second of thought before the defiance.
And it doesn’t stop there. Watch the entire scene. When Newman tells him to jump, Redford layers in tiny choices: a look, a nod, a flicker of “See? That’s why this won’t work.”
👉 It’s not just a funny line. It’s a human response.
Think about the scream: “I can’t swim!” The line alone is iconic. But look at Redford’s face as he delivers it. He doesn’t just yell it. He nods, almost like he’s saying: “See? There’s your answer. Take that.”
It’s layered. It’s alive. It’s real.
And here’s the thing — this is why I do this. These little moments. Because I know what’s happening behind them. I know how much work it takes for a director, a cinematographer, an actor, or even a sound person to make a scene feel invisible. That sound of a door creaking? Someone spent hours finding the exact click that belonged to a 1940s wooden door. That tiny pause before a line? That’s Redford choosing truth over the script.
The irony is, if you do the job right, the audience never notices. They just get pulled in. They laugh. They feel. They lean forward. They don’t know why they’re so hooked — but I do. And it’s these little things, the ones no one talks about, that make me get up at 4 a.m. to grind on three seconds of film until it breathes.
That’s the craft. That’s why Redford inspires me. And that’s why I’ll always fight to get the little things right.
Robert Redford showed us that the pauses are where the truth lives — and if you honor those little moments, you can turn even a pause - silence.... into something unforgettable.
...nuff said.
🎙️ Radio Tunnel
⚡ The signal is live. Welcome back to TRYHARD RADIO UNDERGROUND — Transmission 004: Pause, Rabbit, Death
This week the dial jumps across four frequencies:
💧 Water Cooler Static: The talk in the tunnels is all about Alien Earth and Black Rabbit. Nikki and I binged the first six episodes of Black Rabbit — and I can tell you, it’s the kind of series that proves TV can still cut deep when performances lead the way. And Alien Earth? Those performances keep hitting — raw, human, alive. The only heartbreak: there’s only one episode left.
🎬 Legends and Why They Matter: Robert Redford. Beyond the pretty face. Beyond the heartthrob posters. His legacy is lined with important, culture-shaking films and iconic roles that redefined what indie grit could mean. He wasn’t just part of cinema — he shaped it. I dig into his achievements here, but know this: Redford is one of the reasons I do what I do.
❤️ Blood in the Trenches: Every project has someone who holds the line when everything threatens to collapse. For Nicole and me, that was Jamie Sill. She ran lights, makeup, cables, morale — hell, she ran the world when we needed it. Without her, TRYHARD COMPANY wouldn’t exist.
❄️ The Near-Death Frequency: And then there’s the night Jamie and I almost didn’t make it back. Dead of winter. Outside. No crew. Just the two of us and the cold. Pitch black. One shot to get it right. The kind of night that reminds you why this work isn’t just lights and cameras — it’s survival.
🎧 Transmission 004: Pause, Rabbit, Death is live below.Listen in. Share it with the other survivors. Drop your thoughts, and help grow this underground broadcast into something bigger.
⚠️ Signal dropping. The mission continues. Stay sharp. Stay low.
The tunnel is open. The frequency is live.
🎭 ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
They didn’t just play the role.
They became the reason you kept watching.
👉 Refer to this week’s Radio Blog and Director’s Thoughts as we pause this section to focus on the legacy of Robert Redford.
📺 SERIES SPOTLIGHT
👉 This week, we’re setting aside our usual spotlight to honor Robert Redford. Check the Radio Blog and Director’s Thoughts for a deep dive into his influence and artistry.
🎥 FILM SPOTLIGHT
👉 Instead of a separate film spotlight, we’re looking to Robert Redford — his films, his legacy, his presence. Dive into the Radio Blog and Director’s Thoughts to see why his work endures.
🏆 CRAWL OR DIE CORNER
The film that started it all.
Before TRYHARD COMPANY, there was CRAWL or DIE — a relentless indie beast that clawed its way out of the U.S. underground and became a cult phenomenon, especially overseas.
🎬 WATCH IT NOW
You can stream or rent CRAWL or DIE here:
🔥 Cult underground sci-fi. One tunnel. One woman. One chance.
🎨 FAN TRIBUTE VAULT
This week’s spotlight: Vintage Fan Art
From the early days of the film — gritty, handmade tributes from the trenches of indie fandom. 🔍 Click to enlarge. Soak in the grime. The legacy. The love.
💬 STILL BLEEDING INDIE
TANK wasn’t just a survivor — she became a symbol. A silhouette of desperation, rage, and raw survival. In TRYHARD COMPANY, her legend evolves. The war gets bigger, the world gets meaner — but at its core, it’s still her story: One soldier. One mission. One endless tunnel.
🎬 Rent / Buy / Stream the Original CRAWL or DIE and Prepare for TANK’s return in TRYHARD COMPANY: The Series
FOLLOW THE JOURNEY
🔴 Don’t Miss the Next Drop 🔴
STAY IN THE LOOP WITH US
Get behind-the-scenes updates, new blog posts, and future project news — not just TRYHARD COMPANY.
👤 Follow Oklahoma Ward – director, editor, indie war room general
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🚀 JOIN THE TRYHARD COMPANY TEAM
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If you’re reading this — you’re part of the mission.
💥 Want to Go Deeper?
🔗 Visit TRYHARDseries.com
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Mission Accomplished... for now.
The briefing may be over, but the mission continues. Join the TRYHARD COMPANY team and stay tuned for more updates, insights, and behind-the-scenes information. Share your thoughts and join/follow us on Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, twitter/x etc. - and we'll catch you every Weds/Saturday...
Create fearlessly,
Oklahoma Ward