I’ve updated my iOS app, Selector, and you can get it now on the iTunes store. Years ago, I made this simple little iOS app where a number of people touch the screen and it selects one. That’s it. Oh, it also has a clock, a compass, and lets you draw because … reasons.

It’s a modest app, getting a couple downloads a week, but I hadn’t updated it in years and people were getting notices that it would stop working on future versions of iOS. Surprisingly, I even got a few emails about it. So this past weekend, I decided to do something about it. I mean, how long could it possible take?

11 hours later…

Well, okay, that took a little longer than I thought. Here’s what it entailed:

• Downloaded the latest Xcode and updated all the provisioning stuff.
• Fixed aspect ratio by updating the launch image with a storyboard.
• Updated NIB files.
• Created a new icon.
• Switched from deprecated UIAccelerometer to CMMotionManager.
• Replaced deprecated AudioSessionGetProperty() function calls.
• Updated screenshots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXqhWo55-vw

I was chatting with a friend a while back and had this silly idea: what if the person helping you plan your retirement was psychic? I didn’t do much with the idea until this weekend when my wife and kid were out for the afternoon and suddenly, I had time to actually do something with it.

So I wrote a quick script, figured out my second location, and then shot the thing. It took a few hours because I kept on messing up my lines. (It’s hard being the director, cinematographer, and actor simultaneously!) And then came the editing, which I thought might be interesting to talk about. Take a look at this bit of the timeline from my project (in Final Cut Pro):

Notice anything? “Charles” is the more laid back character and “Tyler” is the more frenetic one. You can see that in the where because Tyler starts his lines before Charles even finishes. It’s a pretty subtle effect but hopefully adds to the overall flow of the piece.

And this has been your director commentary for a 2-minute short.