editing: the magic of pieces coming together

Above are two images that were taken around the same moment during the filming of the UB back in 1978; the first by a still camera, the other from 16mm, but since they were taken they've never been put together as they are here and as they are on the timeline of my doco.

I'm guessing that the magic of this reunion is probably lost on everyone but me, the editor, the creator of this sequence so I'd best explain myself. First there's the moment when you realise that these two pieces of the puzzle fit together. As I mentioned both come from different sources. I've only just received the first image but as soon as I saw it I recognised the frames of the 16mm that it related to - i guess that's the feeling that a researcher longs to have - pieces that fit together that have never been put together before.

Then you lay them next to each other on the timeline and hit play. I guess it's the old Kuleshov effect in play here. In a montage the second image takes most of its meaning from (is contextualised by) the shot preceding it. So prior to me accessing the behind the scenes still shot the piano hands were just anonymous hands playing piano but add that first image, which essentially is a new broader perspective (storyteller) and the story expands exponentially.

So suddenly two separate captured moments (images) that relate to the same historical moment are joined and something weird happens. A world, frozen in time for 30 years, is re-animated.

I think that is awesome and incredibly powerful ... Hmmm :o/ ... guess you had to be there.