The technique of taking a still image and separating it into (usually) three planes and panning a virtual camera around it is, in my humble opinion, a fad. I think it will not hold up long, it's to me a novelty. Bell bottoms, lamb chop sideburns. My opinion is you are better to focus on telling a story. It's video so something has to move in every scene, but turning stills, especially old black and white ones, into 3D clips is a gimmick, not much more. I an okay with some movement on a still, even in 3D, especially if the movement is motivated- something is revealed or the focus changes for a reason related to the narrative arc. But I wince when I see it overdone, which is what the three-plane pans are, to my tastes. Watch the masters to see what's going to last. Burns has a new piece about Vietnam out this week. I suspect there is enough video around that he did not have to rely on stills, but there will be some in there. And it will be interesting to see how they use 1960s low-resolution video in what must be at least a 1080 format. Another PBS show that is doing really nice work with stills is Finding Your Roots, they rely on almost exclusively stills and animations; the work they did their first two seasons was excellent.
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