A Bad Habit on Set...

It has come to my attention this past weekend that I have a slightly "bad habit" when I'm working on sets. It applies to any set - a professional television series or a student film, it doesn't matter.

When I'm on set, I consume a ridiculous amount of caffeine.



This may not seem like a big deal, but it can have disastrous consequences. For one, working on a TV show for four months in a row has left me with quite the caffeine addiction. I need at least one cup of coffee in the morning to get going, and some days, one is nowhere near enough.

Other people on set have habits like smoking cigarettes which get them through the long hours and often uncomfortable conditions while filming; I, on the other hand, drink cup after cup of straight black coffee, and I don't even notice just how much I'm drinking. This cannot be healthy, but it's probably better than smoking.

I suppose the only solution is to keep an eye on my coffee intake and try not to overdose. That happened one time, in the middle of the night on set. I was very tired, and I knew we had several hours more to go, so I just kept drinking coffee... and by about 3am my hands were shaking, I was 'scatterbrained' to an extreme and in the morning (after finally wrapping and going home to sleep for a while) I felt like I had a hangover. Somehow I managed to ignore the call of coffee on set the next day, and stuck with tea instead.

So, the moral of this story is: don't go crazy with the coffee from crafty. Everything in moderation. It's for your own good!