I know 35mm has nothing to do with aspect ratio. As I mentioed that is all to do with widescreen. See I know that much at least.
I know the 35mm is to do with the film in some way. The minute you threw in 16mm and 70mm straight away my brain has gone into whoosh mode again.
The "average person" doesn't look at or care about that kind of thing.
Lets break it down really simply using widecreen and their ratios. The average person picks up the case of the video/DVD/Blu Ray and looks for one word. "Widescreen" They know what the word means, they may even have a widescreen TV. If on the box it says what the ratio is they don't even register it. Just the word "Widescreen."
The next day they are telling someone they bought the film.
Is it in widescreen?
Yes.
What ratio is it?
What what?
The ratio, is it 1.85:1 or 2.39:1?
The person looks blankly thinking what the hell are you talking about? You're talking gibberish throwing meaningless numbers at me.
That person's knowledge and understanding stretches as far as the word widescreen and the fact it means legnthways on the TV.
Not being one to give up.
Well does it have black lines at the top and bottom?
Yes
How thick are they?
Erm....?
This person doesn't measure them and doesn't give them that much thought. Then they get this question
Are the black bars really thick and the film looks squashed up between them like a letter box or are the black bars quite narrow at the top and the bottom so you can see a lot of the picture?
They can mentally picture that and answer it. They can't do that with meaningless (to them) numbers.
If you and I are sitting in the pub and you say you bought the Godfather and when I ask is it any good, if you say it's ok but the pictury is fuzzy, I can imagine a fuzzy picture. If you say it's fuzzy as it's from an 35mm print but if it was from an 70mm print it wouldn't be, you would have lost me.
To paraphrase the lyric of an Thomas Dolby song, "You're blinding me with science." I was good up to the word fuzzy the rest is whoosh!
My brother works in health and safety. Whenever we meet up he talks about his job quoting this regulation and that one. I just say yeah, oh, and right, whilst sipping my pint. I haven't a clue what the hell he's going on about as I'm not in that line of work, got the qualifications or done the courses, so again goobledygook and so it's whoosh!