Michael Portelly, the director best known for spectacular underwater
spots, has shut down his company, Portelly Films, and joined BFCS.
Portelly decided to close his company after spending the last six months
on a project, called ‘relief advertising’, established to encourage
advertisers to instigate social and environmental projects.
The director’s last ad, ‘diver’, for the Cheltenham and Gloucester
building society through K Advertising, was shot almost a year ago.
Portelly is the eighth director to be signed up by BFCS since Peter
Harrison was brought in as the production company’s managing director
ten months ago with a brief to build the company and change its profile.
Portelly, 45, began his career as a dentist, taking underwater
photographs as a hobby. He spent five years alternating between
dentistry and photography, before moving full-time into directing in
1981.
A year later, he joined Fouracre Films and picked up a British
Television Advertising Award for a Dumo ticker- tape ad. He joined
Halton Roy Productions in 1986, where he went on to make Speedo’s
renowned ad featuring athletes on the seabed.
Portelly said: ‘BFCS represents a new platform for all sorts of
possibilities.’
Harrison said: ‘Michael is a brilliant director, both underwater and on
terra-firma.’
