(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Shia LaBeouf has explained how he ended up producing the video clip for rapper Kid Cudi's single Maniac.

The Transformers star revealed that a mutual friend, performer Cage, brought them together and how their somewhat unlikely partnership began.

The 25-year-old says working on the musician's video and later filming a documentary with him allowed him to explore his talent on the other side of the camera.

"[Cage] is one of my good friends. Cage, Chris Palko, and I had been trying to make a movie about him for a while," he told MTV News. "Cudi hit [Cage] up and did a song with him. Cage sent me the song, called Maniac, so initially, we started prepping this video, which is really like a short horror movie that I made that comes out on Halloween. In the interim, while we were finishing up the effects on it, [Cudi] told me he was going to Amsterdam for the Cannabis Cup."

Having enjoyed working on the music video, the Hollywood hunk jumped at the chance to accompany the rapper on a trip to the Netherlands, saying that it was like the ultimate boy's road trip.

Shia clearly enjoyed his first steps as a filmmaker and revealed shooting the trip on an 8mm camera was exciting.

"It's as big as Spielberg," he said. "It is for a 25-year-old male who has all these crazy fantasies about Amsterdam, which every male my age has, there's that college trip you always want to take. And to do that with Cudi when he's a judge, and I get to roll with him with my 8mm camera [like] an Easy Rider documentarian, I felt like Cameron Crowe or something." (C) Cover Media