If Yvonne Chalkley's reel didn't already precede her, her reputation would. The deputy head of TV at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO has been producing on the agency side for close to 15 years now; in that time she's put her name on top work from Jonathan Glazer, Danny Kleinman and Rupert Sanders. But more importantly, she's fostered a reputation as one of the most enabling and creative-friendly producers in London.

"What makes her so good at her job is she's very creatively intuitive," explains Tom Carty, who worked with Chalkley for six years while he was a creative at AMV.BBDO and a few more times after that as a director with London's Gorgeous Films. "She understands ideas and she does her very best to make them work. If, for example, there are problems with budgets, she'll go the extra mile to make things happen."

Chalkley got her start in advertising in 1979, beginning as a PA with an editing company. After working her way up to producer, she branched out more fully into the production side, shooting hundreds of ads all over the world, in the process becoming conversant in pretty much every aspect of production. In the early '90s, she crossed the threshold over into freelance agency producing, eventually landing a full-time gig at AMV.BBDO in 1994. It was there that she would produce some of the world's best-known spots, including Guinness' "Dream Club" and "Surfer", both helmed by Glazer.

These days, Chalkley - an avid reader and film buff - produces around 20 individual spots a year. Theoretically, as the agency's deputy head of TV, she could take on only its largest and highest-profile work, but she's too enamored with great ideas and different types of challenges to relegate herself to a specific type of job. "I could do all the top jobs if I wanted," she says. "But [me and] Francine [Linsey], who is the head of television, we don't believe in that. I like to do a big job, and then maybe a small job or a home-based job."

That drive to work right across the spectrum is evident in her most recent projects. After wrapping an epic new Guinness spot with Kleinman ("noitulovE" - see Top Spots, pg. 12), she's also just lent her talents to a viral marketing spot for London's D&AD Awards. "[There was] no money and no time," she says, "but it was a really good idea."

Chalkley's ability to see how all the different pieces of the puzzle fit together is one of her biggest assets as an agency producer. It's a skill she attributes largely to her diverse CV. "It's always good as an agency producer to do both," she says. "To try production and understand everything - how a shoot works, how you book camera equipment, lights."

But where too many agency producers judge their own success against bottom lines and other tangible measures, the human side of production isn't lost on Chalkley; she prizes her equanimity and relationship-building abilities as much as her production knowledge. "I get on with people," she says. "I always tell new producers and new PAs to get on and to keep cool in situations when everything around you is going crazy. Keep calm and try to get what the creatives want to get the best ad."

Kleinman says her comradery helped set the pace for Guinness. "She took my producer Johnnie and I out for a pre-production lunch with the creatives, which doesn't happen often, but it was nice to spend some relaxed time with the group of people that we would be seeing a lot over the next few months," he recalls. "Was it shrewd or did she just like the idea of a nice long lunch? Whatever; it set the right tone and the process of creating the Guinness ad was tough but enjoyable and good-humored."

Although she's nowhere near ready to start looking back on her career just yet, Chalkley doesn't hesitate when asked which single ad she's fondest of. "'Surfer'," she says. "I've done lots of great things, but that's an ad I'm really proud of. I was very lucky to work on it."

Having it on her reel gives her extra drive going forward. "I'm always keen to get a new script and I think 'Could that be better than Guinness'?" she says. "'Surfer' is always the benchmark; if I can beat that, I know it's going to be amazing."

QUICK HITS

On her worst shoot ever: "It was a 10-night shoot for a phone company. We had bad weather, no sleep, a fairly difficult client, a creative team in the process of splitting up, and the director had been going through personal problems as well. I think that was when I almost resigned!"
On working with Glazer: "Jonathan is just a brilliant, brilliant director. I've never worked with anyone like him. His casting is excellent, his ideas, his thoughts. He's constantly moving things on, he's never happy, he's always feeling like he can push it more, and he never stops."
On her latest masterpiece, Guinness 'noitulovE': "It's back on track... it was such a simple idea but I saw the script and thought 'Wow, that could be amazing.' We got Danny interested and had four months of post, so that was quite a hard one to manage. But it was great because you just knew at the end you were going to get something fantastic."

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