something causes the code to crash at the alive4 in addPlayerLayer.. _playerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:self.player];

gistfile1.m

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#pragma mark video layer initialization
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

- (void)initializePlayer {
    [self cleanup:YES];
    if (!self.player) {
        self.player = [[AVPlayer alloc] init];
        [self.layer setMasksToBounds:YES];
        [self.player addObserver:self forKeyPath:@"status" options:0 context:nil];
    }


    //rebuild the project
    [self pause];


    AVPlayerItem *targetItem;
    if (_previewItem) {
//        DDLogVerbose(@"previewing item %@", _previewItem);
        [self.player pause];
        _itemDuration = _previewItem.asset.duration;
        targetItem = [[AVPlayerItem alloc] initWithAsset:_previewItem.asset];
        self.isSyncLayerHidden = YES;
    } else {
        [self.projectBuilder buildCompositionObjectsForTarget:self.buildTarget];
        _itemDuration = self.project.duration;
        targetItem = self.projectBuilder.playerItem;
        [self updateSyncLayerPositionAndTransform];
    }

    [self.player replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem:targetItem];

}

- (void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object
                        change:(NSDictionary *)change context:(void *)context {
    if (object == _player && [keyPath isEqualToString:@"status"]) {
        DDLogVerbose(@"status changed ");
        self.isSyncLayerHidden = !_previewItem && self.player.status != AVPlayerStatusReadyToPlay;
        DDLogVerbose(@"alive1 ");
        if (self.player.status == AVPlayerStatusReadyToPlay) {
            DDLogVerbose(@"alive2 ");
            [self addPlayerLayer];
        }
        DDLogVerbose(@"finished ");

    }

}

- (void)addPlayerLayer {
    DDLogVerbose(@"alive3 ");
    DDLogVerbose(@"alive4 ");

    _playerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:self.player];
    DDLogVerbose(@"alive5 ");
    _playerLayer.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor].CGColor;
    DDLogVerbose(@"alive6 ");
    _playerLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFill;
            _playerLayer.frame = self.bounds;
            DDLogVerbose(@"alive7 ");
            [self.layer addSublayer:self.playerLayer];
            DDLogVerbose(@"alive8 ");
            _isPlayerReady = YES;
 
}

- (void)cleanup:(BOOL)isFullCleanup {
    _isPlayerReady = NO;
    [self.player pause];
    [self.player removeObserver:self forKeyPath:@"status"];
    if (isFullCleanup) {
        [self.playerLayer removeFromSuperlayer];
        self.playerLayer = nil;
        self.player = nil;
    }
}