When XYZ Films was first approached to work on the visual album "Something Beautiful,"Miley Cyrus already had a visionin mind for its film. XYZ, the independent production studio behind Flying Lotus' second feature "Ash" and RZA's "Cut Throat City," had been looking to stake more territory in the music space when Cyrus' management company Crush Music asked if they were interested in taking a meeting to hear about her new project. "The vision to us was pretty clear," Nate Bolotin, XYZ co-founder, tellsVariety. "She definitely wanted it to be cinematic — not in the term 'cinematic,' like cinematic-looking — but she wanted it to exist as its own thing, as something that wouldn't be described as a music video or something that is just a companion piece to an album that would stand on its own." More from Variety Tribeca Festival: Miley Cyrus' 'Something Beautiful,' Barbara Walters Doc and 11 Other Films We're Excited to See Miley Cyrus Follows Her Muse on the Thrilling Yet Challenging 'Something Beautiful': Album Review Miley Cyrus Debuts New Album 'Something Beautiful' With Surprise Performance at Fan-Only TikTok Event in Los Angeles Bolotin, along with fellow XYZ co-founders Aram Tertzakian and Nick Spicer (who also serves as CEO), signed on to become one of the key producers on "Something Beautiful by Miley Cyrus," the companion film to her ninth studio album that released on May 30. XYZ, founded in 2008, has etched a space for itself in the independent film circuit, producing dozens of films and licensing hundreds more. But this type of move into the music space felt like breaking new ground. "We want to be the go-to company for projects like this," says Bolotin. "What we're really excited about is working with artists, multihyphenates, especially artists who have a deep career in music that want to get into these types of projects. It's scratching an itch that we've wanted to scratch for a really long time." "Something Beautiful by Miley Cyrus," debuting at Tribeca Film Festival on June 6, is a cinematic exploration of the album, a project that shape-shifts across eras while drawing from artists who inspired her. Each song is represented by striking visuals tailored to a specific mood and texture, from the '80s-invoking blue backlights of "Walk of Fame" to the '90s camcorder aesthetic of "Reborn." Alongside Cyrus, XYZ produced alongside Panos Cosmatos, the director-writer behind "Beyond the Black Rainbow" and "Mandy," while Cyrus co-directed with Jacob Bixenman and Brendan Walter. Prior to shooting, Cyrus had a lookbook completed for the film with thematic elements in place. She had shared her enthusiasm for "Mandy," the XYZ-produced surrealist 2018 horror film, prompting the company to bring its director Cosmatos as a "sort of sherpa" on the project, says Tertzakian. With a team in place, they evolved the core idea for "Something Beautiful" over several months before arriving at a creative consensus, setting to work on lensing the film. "It started to take shape and that was the fusion that led to what the project ended up becoming," says Bolotin. "All from her mind. She's the one who certainly spearheaded what the project would ultimately become, and we were there to help bring it to life." Cyrus, Bixenman and Walter had storyboarded every shot well in advance of shooting, which predominantly took place at Los Angeles' Paramount Studios and a few portions in New York City. Unlike with other productions, they brought in heads of departments for choreography and wardrobe early on, and captured the footage over three weeks. XYZ's creative team explains that Cyrus' pedigree as a multihyphenate allowed for adjustments to be made in real-time. "Miley would call audibles or Jacob and Brendan would make adjustments on the ground and deviate from the storyboards," says Spicer. "It wasn't as scientific and meticulous and just executing the storyboards. It was a fluid process once we got there." As the album draws from different eras, XYZ helped translate that to film by shooting on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm, giving each song a different look. Lighting plays a significant role in shaping the visuals, from the red hue bathing Cyrus as she perches on a motorcycle for "Golden Burning Sun" to the lightning-like white flashes of "Pretend You're God." "She was really clear about what color palette she wanted to have going in," says Spicer. "Spent a lot of time talking with her production designer, with [director of photography] Benoît [Debie], about it early on, and we put a lot of resources into the lighting department, more than we would on a normal feature because that was going to be so important to it." The film doesn't follow a straight narrative — it's connected by title cards — yet Tertzakian says that's a testament to the film they were attempting to make. "It was more of a conversation of, let's have this take us on a journey and that journey is going to be reflected visually so that each song stands alone in its inspirations," he says. "Given that it's a shorter feature-length film and under an hour, that style, that kind of bold decision-making to segue from one style to another, would not overstay its welcome. Again, she pulled that off." Following its Tribeca debut, "Something Beautiful by Miley Cyrus" will come to theaters for one-night-only screenings across North America on June 12 and internationally on June 27. For XYZ, it marks a new sort of beginning, an entry point into a lane to tell a different kind of story. "To us, it's not about trying to replicate what Miley did, it's not trying to do this over and over again in the same way," says Bolotin. "We just really want to work with musicians and help them, if there's an opportunity to collaborate and do something where we can bring the tools that we have and the different filmmakers that we work with. For us, this is like scratching the surface." Best of Variety What's Coming to Netflix in June 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? Sign up forVariety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us onFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram.
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