- (void)ffmpegProcessFrames
{
        // get a pointer sitting at the most recent image data
        //  - we're doing "totalCaptured - 1" because at this point we've already captured the frame, so totalCaptured will reflect
        //    the index after the last frame has been captured.  we want a pointer at the beginning of this data
        //  - % BUFFER_FRAME_MAX_COUNT : since our data buffer is circular - meaning once it gets to the end of the allocated memory,
        //    it starts filling up at the beginning again, we want to compensate for each time we reach the end of the buffer
        //  - * frameSize : frameSize represents the number of bytes per image
        //  - buffer + : we want to get a pointer that sits at the head of the image we want to process, so take the buffer and add
        //    the appropriate number of bytes to get to the current image
    uint8_t *rgb_data = buffer + (frameSize * ((*totalCaptured - 1) % BUFFER_FRAME_MAX_COUNT));

    uint8_t *rgb_src[3] = {
        rgb_data,
        NULL,
        NULL
    };

    int rgb_stride[3] = {
        4 * FRAME_WIDTH,
        0,
        0
    };

    uint8_t *origDataPtr;
    uint8_t *data = av_malloc(4 * FRAME_WIDTH * FRAME_HEIGHT);
    origDataPtr = &(*data);

        // i believe this is for planar image representation
    uint8_t *src[4] = {
        data,
        data + FRAME_WIDTH * FRAME_HEIGHT,
        data + FRAME_WIDTH * FRAME_HEIGHT * 2,
        data + FRAME_WIDTH * FRAME_HEIGHT * 3
    };

    int stride[4] = {
        FRAME_WIDTH,
        FRAME_WIDTH,
        FRAME_WIDTH,
        FRAME_WIDTH
    };

    struct SwsContext *sws;

        // get the scale context
    sws = sws_getContext(FRAME_WIDTH, // src width
                FRAME_HEIGHT, // src height
                PIX_FMT_RGB32, // src pixel format ,
                FRAME_WIDTH, // dest width
                FRAME_HEIGHT, // dest height
                PIX_FMT_YUVA420P, // dest pix format
                SWS_BILINEAR, // FLAGS
                NULL,
                NULL,
                NULL);

    int sliceHeight = sws_scale(sws,
                rgb_src,
                rgb_stride,
                0,
                FRAME_HEIGHT,
                src,
                stride);

    sws_freeContext(sws);


    x264_image_t img;

    img.i_csp = X264_CSP_I420;
    img.i_plane = 4;

    for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
    {
        img.i_stride[i] = stride[i];
        img.plane[i] = src[i];
    }

    x264_picture_t picvar;
    x264_picture_t *pic = &picvar;

    x264_picture_alloc(pic, X264_CSP_I420, FRAME_WIDTH, FRAME_HEIGHT);

    pic->img = img;


        // encode
    x264_picture_t pic_out;
    x264_nal_t *nal;
    int i_nal;
    int i_frame_size = 0;

        i_frame_size = x264_encoder_encode( encoderHandle, &nal, &i_nal, pic, &pic_out );

    for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
        src[i] = NULL;
    /*
    the following line logs this message:
    ProjectName(532,0x854600) malloc: *** error for object 0x615f5f5e: Non-aligned pointer being freed
    *** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
    */
    av_freep(origDataPtr);
}