Watch the First Episode of the David Bowie-Inspired Instagram Video Series Now

A video posted by InstaMiniSeries (@instaminiseries) on Feb 25, 2016 at 4:58pm PST

David Bowie is dead, long live David Bowie. His creativity and commitment to reinvention and originality lives on in artists, musicians, and filmmakers the world over. The filmmakers at Instagram's InstaMiniSeries got the chance to orbit closer to Bowie's celestial body than most who claim him as inspiration, for a new project called Unbound. Over the course of 16 episodes, InstaMiniSeries' [Nikki Borges](http:// www.nikkiborges.com/), writer Carolynn Cecilia, and producer Lawrence Peryer created a story rooted in the emotions of Bowie's latest (but not last) album, ★ (Blackstar). Now, you can watch the first episode above.

Peryer, a longtime Bowie collaborator who helped launch BowieNet, makes it clear that Unbound is not an interpretation of ★, nor was the Thin White Duke involved in the project—for the most part. "David did send a couple of very light-touch but interesting thoughts back on the treatment, which of course were 10x improvements over our ideas," Peryer says. But he describes the gap between Bowie and Unbound as being as wide as that between a Star Wars movie and a novel from its expanded universe. "David granted access to his material and assets but let others do the combining and curating," he explains.

The InstaMiniSeries team was granted early access to the album and sworn to secrecy while they wrote and produced the four-minute minute story in 15-second increments. Often they couldn't tell certain cast and crew members what the project was for, and played music with the same BPM as whatever ★ song that would later be edited into the footage. "There was an initiation process that was part legal contract and part Bush-on-Putin: I looked into people's eyes and decided if they were good," Peryer tells The Creators Project. "If anyone had slipped, I would have been ashamed. But no one did."

The goal of Unbound is not to be a music video or interpret Bowie's work, but rather to create a pure expression of ★'s emotion. "The album is entrenched in a yearning and that spoke to me," Cecilia tells us. "At times there is desperation and at times there is acceptance, but it is never without that yearning, that longing, and it comes through so strongly through McCaslin's arrangements." Unbound is an attempt on her and Borges' part to internalize those emotions and make something new and completely original.

"I knew early on that literalism was our enemy," adds Peryer. "The biggest challenges were logistical—going from pre to post very, very quickly, having back up plans when actors or locations fell through, as well as wringing any literalism out during final cut." Upon reflection, he amends the claim, saying, "Let's be frank, the biggest challenge was doing something that lived up to the incredible trust we were granted. David's fans are smart and discerning. They will detect any lack of authenticity or quality from a mile away. I think (and hope!) we are giving them something worthy of the enthusiasm they've shown us since this was announced."

Check out some behind the scenes images from the making of Unbound below.

Learn more about Lawrence Peryer, [Nikki Borges](http:// www.nikkiborges.com/), and Carolynn Cecilia on their websites. Watch new episodes of Unbound at InstaMiniSeries every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

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