What Rembrandt exactly had in mind with The Night Watch can no longer be sufficiently appreciated as it is currenlty presented in the Rijksmuseum.
This is due to it, being cut down on all sides shortly after 1715. We know what the painiting originally looked like due to a copy made shortly after the completion of The Night Watch. This copy includes a more asymmetrical placement of the two officers, giving the painting much more dynamism.
For the MetaRembrandt Project the painting is digitally reconstructed. The strip removed at the bottom has a deep impact: when you would put the strip back on, the javelin seems to come out the painting even more prominent, like a 3D painting.