Photography nerds

I know some of you guys are into a bit of photography so I thought someone here might know the answer to my question.

I was watching CSI last night, and as always, the episode was shot beautifully. I have noticed that they use some kind of Sepia/yellow filter when filming certain scenes, particularily when they are in the desert or in the burbs. Last night, they were in some suburb and there was the bright red Ferrari in this guys driveway. Anyway, they had shot this scene with some kind of filter I imagine, and it made everything look incredibly warm and yellow, yet natural, but all reds were still really RED and saturated. Erin Brockovich and Traffic were also shot like this.

Does anyone know exactly what kind of filter they would have used or would it have just been touched up on the computer or something?

I just bought a HOYA polorizer for my SLR and was looking for this kind of filter mentioned but didn\'t know if they existed. I did some searching but couldn\'t really find anything.

Damn, where is video when you really need him.

There\'s no guarantee Vid would know the answer to this one.  I consider myself a proponent of emulsion-based photography, and even I have happily given up all those absurd filter collections photographers used to drag around with them.  The only thing I bother to use anymore is a Polarizer and a couple of tungsten and UV correction filters.  Why bother to invest in filters when you can achieve the same effect by editing the image digitally at a later stage?

I can tell you this much:  I remember reading that Steven Soderberg achieved the varied colorations in the movie "Traffic" by using different distinct film stocks; a different film for each location in the story.  Perhaps he was using them in conjunction with filters, but certainly there are many different ways to go about it.  I\'d be willing to bet that if you see anyone mimicking the effect on television, they are probably doing it digitally.

It just looks like they have decreased the colour temp, except that reds are still totally RED, not orange, and this was my main concern.

Traffic was shot brilliantly. Maybe it was just the type of film they were using, I don\'t know. Its still an excellent effect regardless of how they created it. There are 81a,b,c filters, but I don\'t know if that creates the same effect. If anyone knows, it would be greatly appreciated.

I recommend that you post your question here:

http://www.popphoto.com/idealbb/default.asp

Thanks I will check it out.