As Gerry Anderson moved away from puppet animation, Mitton became freelance. He worked as assistant director to Ridley Scott on the famous Hovis commercials of the seventies in the United Kingdom and began directing animated television commercials himself. In the mid-seventies, he established a company called Clearwater Films (later Clearwater Features), with former Thunderbirds director Ken Turner and American-born producer Robert D. Cardona. The company soon gained a reputation for innovative stop-frame animated television commercials. Clearwater produced two award-winning commercials, one for Hovis set in an orbiting space station and another for PG Tips tea bags.