Live — currently building: Genlock Studio

Engineering. Intelligent. Action.

I'm James. I build custom applications and bespoke laboratory systems for workflows off-the-shelf software cannot solve — then bring the same systems thinking to campaigns, live shows, and original worlds.

View the work Watch the process
Vertical broadcast signal-flow schematic — inputs through DSP chain and matrix mixer to output buses — in signal green on near-black
00 Worked with & for
Broadcast & entertainment · 10 yrs
WWE
NBC
HBO
ESPN

Ten years across live broadcast — where a system either holds at showtime or it doesn't.

A Bespoke solutions
Solution-driven design

The catalogue ends somewhere. That's where I build.

Solution-driven design means the workflow comes first: the instruments, the data, the handoffs, the pressure. Every system here was engineered around a specific team's reality — never adapted from someone else's product.

Problem / 01

Instruments that don't talk.

The build

Integration layers and data pipelines that connect hardware, LIMS, and the people reading the results.

Problem / 02

Data that has to be right.

The build

Validated capture, structured storage, and audit trails — no re-keying, no ambiguity, no silent drift.

Problem / 03

A show with no second take.

The build

Live production tooling and control surfaces engineered to hold at showtime — because there is no retry.

Problem / 04

A process no product fits.

The build

Ground-up custom applications shaped to the way your team actually operates — and owned by you.

Instrument integrationData pipelinesWorkflow automationLive production toolingValidated captureAudit trailsCampaign systems
B Selected work
01–04

Custom app development sits at the center of the practice. Campaigns, formats, and fiction extend the same engineering discipline into the world.

01 Building in public Desktop application

Genlock Studio

A local-first desktop studio for AI film and series production — one environment carrying a project from script through structure, generation, review, and final cut.

Eight purpose-built cockpits over a bring-your-own-key provider layer, so the production outlives whichever model is best this month. Nothing uploads: story, shots, takes, and cut stay in open files on your own disk — the whole suite runs air-gapped.

Platform
Windows + macOS · local-first
Workspaces
Skeleton, Director, The Brain, Showrunner, Boneyard, Studio, Backlot, Safelight
Generators
Higgsfield · OpenArt · fal · local — your keys, no markup
Audit
Capability matrix, decision log, cost ledger, resumable runs
Licence
One-time · Ed25519-signed, verified offline · ships with “The Last Frequency,” a 12-shot sample production
Local-firstBYO providerSequencing UIReview workflowNo lock-in
genlockstudio.com
Genlock Studio · UI capture
Skeleton · Filetype diagram
02 v2.10 · MIT Open specification

Skeleton

SKEL — Story Keyframe Extensible Layout: the open, machine-readable story format underneath Genlock Studio. Screenplays, storyboards, and visual narratives as flat, relational data.

Structured like a relational database rather than a nested tree, extended by two plugin layers — BONE carries swappable provider and prompt contracts, MUSCLE adds validated behaviour on lifecycle hooks. Published openly, so creative structure survives the app it was made in.

Files
.skel (YAML) · .skel.json (export & interchange)
Model
Flat relational — acts, scenes, shots linked by ID
Plugins
BONE (generator contracts) · MUSCLE (behaviour)
Validation
JSON Schema Draft 7 · error catalogue · conformance corpus
Package
@openskeleton/spec v2.10.1 — schemas, types, CLI · MIT · Brandflowr AI LLC

npx @openskeleton/cli validate story.skel

Open specYAML + JSONSchema-validatedTool-independentGit-friendly
openskeleton.dev @openskeleton/spec GitHub
03 In development Original series

Nightmare Seed

An original dark anthology grown from unsettling ideas, strange systems, and things better left dormant.

Standalone stories on one root system — each episode grown from a single unsettling seed and engineered to bloom in the dark.

AnthologyWorldbuildingHorror
Nightmare Seed · Key art
AntigenX · World frame
04 In development Original series · Animation

AntigenX

An animated world where identity, biology, and technology stop respecting their boundaries.

Character, biology, and machine design built as one continuous system — the same discipline behind the lab software, pointed at fiction.

AnimationSci-fiSeries design
C How it connects
A small, deliberate ecosystem
The builder JjamesS

Engineering, systems thinking, and 25 years of craft.

The studio BrandFlowr

The company the work ships through.

The output Genlock + Skeleton

Nightmare Seed · AntigenX · campaigns · live shows

The Midnight Jellyfish documents the whole process — from architecture and production to the uncomfortable first draft. WATCH ↗

D Operating method
01 → 03

Map the work. Build the system. Prove it under load.

  1. 01

    Understand the real workflow

    Map the instruments, data, decisions, handoffs, and constraints that generic software misses.

  2. 02

    Develop the bespoke solution

    Turn that understanding into dependable custom software, clear interfaces, useful automation, and durable data structures.

  3. 03

    Make it work in the world

    Carry the system through launch — supporting a laboratory, powering a campaign, running a live show, or opening a new world.

E Prior signal
25 / 15 / 10

25 Years creating worlds

15 Years developing software

10 Years live broadcast

For 15 years I've developed software around real people and specialized work — with a particular focus on bespoke laboratory solutions: custom applications that connect instruments, structure data, reduce friction, and fit the way a team actually operates.

That practice is informed by ten years in live broadcast for WWE, NBC, ABC, HBO, and ESPN — and 25 years creating worlds through 3D, animation, campaigns, and original storytelling.

F Open channel
Response < 48h

Need software that doesn't exist yet?

Let's build it around your work hello@jjamess.com
Custom applications Laboratory solutions Marketing campaigns Live show production