The “Ken Burns Effect” is a tool in Apple’s iMovie 3 software. The feature enables a widely used technique of embedding still photographs in motion pictures, displayed with slow zooming and panning effects, and fading transitions between them.
The use of the technique predates Ken Burns’ use of it, but his name has become associated with the technique in much the same way as Alfred Hitchcock is associated with the Hitchcock zoom.
The term has also been used less formally to refer to a person who gains an increased degree of celebrity after appearing in a Burns documentary. Such people include Shelby Foote and Buck O’Neil.
Here’s a good example:
