The Ride

Born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, Rob C. Givens was given his parents’ Pentax Spotmatic in middle school, which later led to shooting videos with friends and, ultimately, North Carolina School of the Arts for filmmaking. It was there that he realized (while sitting on the dolly next to the camera in the center of the madness making calm decisions about how to tell the story through the lens) he’d found his place.

The Ride, directed by Dallas Jenkins and shot on the Sony F3, is about a disengaged taxi driver who is forced to connect with his last passenger on Christmas Eve when he senses there is trouble. As the night progresses and the mystery deepens, the long ride changes both of them forever.

“This film contained several elements that I’d not had a lot of practice with,” says Givens. “Like process trailer work and night exteriors with limited crew size. I saw these both as challenges going into the project, but they ended up being strong suits during production: The process trailer work, though a bit tedious, was pretty straightforward, and the small crew size enabled us to move quickly between locations.”

Because of the limited schedule and not being able to bring any camera assistants that Givens had worked with before, he chose to shoot with the Angenieux Optimo 15-40–mm and 30-80–mm lenses.

“I knew these two zooms would free us up from having to swing primes while on the process trailer and would ultimately speed things up. Also, with the light sensitivity of the F3, I knew I could get away with the slightly deeper stop. The zooms held up beautifully and cut nicely with the 85-millimeter and 135-millimeter Ultra Primes we carried for longer lens work out of the car.”