The Ken Burns Effect

The Ken Burns Effect is a camera technique that allows the filmmaker to retain some visual interest when all there is to work with is a static image. The camera focuses on part of the image, then slowly pans over it, optionally zooming slowly in or out as it does so. This can be used to slowly reveal details in the case of panning or zooming out, or focusing attention on specific details in the case of zooming in.

If you want to get fancy, slide multiple cells across each other at different speeds to simulate Motion Parallax and give the illusion of depth.

This technique is most frequently used in documentaries (where period photographs may be the only visuals, aside from Talking Heads, the filmmaker has to work with) and in Limited Animation (where one fancy painting can fill in for a hundred or more cells of real animation). In one context, this effect wins awards; in the other, it draws cries of "Lazy Artist!" Go figure.

The technique is named after documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, who used it extensively in The Civil War and other documentaries. In fact, this effect is so associated with Mr. Burns that some movie-editing software (like Apple's iMovie and Openshot for Linux) call it "the Ken Burns Effect". Ken Burns himself credits Jerome Liebling and the 1957 National Film Board of Canada documentary City of Gold as his inspirations for the technique.


 * This video about a scoring technique for a homebrew clone of the video game Lumines uses pans and zooms over static images from 0:24 to 1:17 when telling the story behind the clone. An annotation on the video points this out: "interestingly enough, ken burns-style zoom effects like this make the titles in front *more* readable"