But what would be the point of a 3D model? The houses actually used to look like that, so they would just need to remaster the old clips. Plus I doubt they would include the power lines in a 3D model.
There's only so much "remastering" you can do from early 1990s video. Certainly nothing that would make the quality of the image used in the trailer. Look at the blinds in the first floor bay windows. You can see each individual blind. Not getting that from late 80s, early 90s video, no matter how much you remaster it. Pink Floyd found this out when they remastered "Pulse" a few years ago...they bemoaned the fact that they only had video, and not film, to work from. And you can tell. And if anyone would put money into remastering, it would be them for that release.
Adding the power lines gives a dose of realism. As I work in the TV and film industry, I've been shocked at the amount of detail art departments will go into to make their sets and models look real. Things I used to look for on TV to see if they were on a set, thinking "they'd never go that far for a set", were all things that they actually do put on sets. Thermostats, fire sprinklers, conduits...anything you can think of, they do too.
I don't think it's a 3D model. It's been renovated many many times.
Indeed, but looking at google street view, which has almost yearly photos dating back to 2008, one thing to notice is the front doors. The same doors have been on that house since at least 2008. Sure, they could have replaced them for the shot, since they needed red doors, but they just don't look real. There's also the tree next to the stairs...that thing's been pretty big for years. The house to the right was remodeled from that look in 2009, and lost the wood shingle siding at that time. There's also that weird thing in the upper-right window, which isn't in a single recent image of the house, but is in the original footage. They could have shot the house many years ago in HD, but I'm not sure why they would have. This could also be some original film, but I'd find that hard to believe as well.
I could be wrong, and I'm happy to be, but I just think a lot of it is computer-generated.