The poster I am going to analyse is one of the posters distributed to promote Captain America The Winter Soldier. The film was released in April 2014 and was a critical and commercial success, becoming the 7th highest grossing film of 2014.

The story follows Steve Rogers (Captain America) who after the events of The Avengers has joined SHIELD ‘to protect people’. However, Nick Fury shows Cap Project Insight, a plan to have three brand new Helicarriers that travel round the globe constantly surveying the population of earth stopping any threats before they can escalate. After explaining this to Cap he is ambushed and attacked, Barely alive, he makes his to Rogers’ apartment where he shot by The Winter Soldier, a mysterious assassin that has been killing for almost 60 years. As the story unfolds, Rogers learns that SHIELD has been infiltrated by an enemy organisation HYDRA and he and fellow Avenger Black Widow go on the run from HYDRA agents in order to survive and figure out a way to stop HYDRA from conquering the planet using Project Insight, along the way finding out the true identity of The Winter Soldier. The film stars Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Robert Redford and Samuel L Jackson.

The title font is a bold sans serif font that is very basic, but it does make the title stand out. The font used has also become recognisable to the brand, as the font has retained its core features since the original film was released, although it is lacking the 3D effects that is used in the trailer and in the first film. I feel that 3D effect could have been used in this poster, however I think that it may have taken to much attention away from the main image. I believe that we will stick with a 2D font for our poster as we want the attention to be focused on the image we are using.

The main image on this poster is of Captain America wearing his new suit taking cover underneath his iconic shield. This poster emphasises the plot of the film as SHIELD has been infiltrated by HYDRA and Captain America is be hunted by former allies and doesn’t know who to trust. The image used really shows the character is under attack.

The photo used is actually taken from another poster that was also released to promote the film, however in the poster on the right, the image of Captain America fills the poster, where as in the poster I am reviewing the image appears much smaller alongside a collection of other images. I like the way that the main image is the most eyecatching feature, but it is still surrounded by other features as it gives the poster definition.

As well as the main image of Captain America taking cover behind his shield, there are various other smaller images of the films supporting cast and plot references.The first of these images is of the second titular character The Winter Soldier, whose image showcases his character design with his combat suit and the iconic metal arm.On the right of the main image is Scarlett Johansson reprising her as Black Widow from the Avengers film. At the top of the poster behind Cap’s shield is the three helicarriers from Nick Fury’s Project Insight which is an essential part of the plot of the film. In the top left corner of the poster is an image of Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury and below that is an image of Alexander Pierce, played by Robert Redford. The posters use of these images can help to develop interest in the film as it showcases new and returning characters which might interest readers of the source material. Overall, I like the use of these images around the outside of the poster as they make the poster more detailed and showcases many members of the supporting cast.

The Billing Block is the large paragraph of text that normally appears below the title on a movie poster.

The billing block on this poster follows film poster convention as the title does appear below and similarly to other film posters it uses a small and barely visible font, in fact the most visible part of the billing block is the release date for the film which written in a bold white font. The text just explains that the film is produced by Marvel and it also lists the actors and actresses as well as the directors, producers and some other key members of staff.Uniquely along with the title, the billing block appears to be at a 45 degree angle. I don’t understand why the poster designer had done this as it leaves some empty space in the bottom hand corner, which could have been filled with another smaller image, perhaps of Anthony Mackie’s Falcon character.

The overall layout of the poster doesn’t necessarily follow convention as lots of posters offer one main image with some detailed features in the background. However, this poster is very unique in the way that is feels layered with the smaller images surround. Starting with the bottom layer of the large red and white star pattern, the same pattern from Captain America shield . On top of the star pattern is some the smaller images of Nick Fury, Alexander Pierce, as well as the shots of the Helicarriers, the fighter jets and Washington’s Capital Building. Then on top of that is the images of Black Widow and The Winter Soldier, the next layer is the main image of Captain America covering under his shield. The top layer is obviously the title which overlaps the main image. I like the way that these layers of images are used on the poster as it provides both eyecatching and detailed features.

One of the most noticeable features of this poster is the colour scheme. The colour used are red and white, the poster really sticks to this as each image has been given a drawing effect, which links the film back to the comic book source material. But this effect really works well will the colour the colour scheme as the shading and detail is all shown as a mixture of red, gray, black and white. The colour scheme for this poster is ultimately unique as the colour really has an impact on how each the images looks as conventionally, the background would follow a colour scheme, but would include images that vary in colour. But there the colour scheme dictates the posters whole appearance, and overall this colour scheme makes a great poster.

Overall, the poster that I have analysed for Captain America The Winter Soldier is one of the most unique film posters I have seen possibly the best poster released promote to the film. My only criticism being the wasted in the bottom left corner of the poster, but apart the individual design and original colour scheme make this a well crafted poster.