Editing Traffic (2000 film) (section)

===Principal photography===
Half of the first day's footage came out overexposed and unusable.<ref name="Daly" /> Before the financiers or studio bosses knew about the problem, Soderbergh was already doing reshoots. The insurers made him agree that any further mishaps resulting in additional filming would come from the director's pocket.<ref name="Daly" /> Soderbergh shot in various cities in California, Ohio, and Texas, on a 54-day schedule and came in $2 million under budget.<ref name="Hope" /> The director acted as his cinematographer under the [[pseudonym]] Peter Andrews and operated the camera himself to "get as close to the movie as I can" and to eliminate the distance between the actors and himself.<ref>{{cite web|last1=French|first1=Phillip|title=Traffic|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_review/0,,430492,00.html|website=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=March 29, 2018|date=January 28, 2001|archive-date=April 18, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418174448/http://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_review/0,,430492,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Hope" /> Soderbergh drew inspiration from the cinema verite style of [[Ken Loach]]'s films, studying the framing of scenes, the distance of the camera to the actors, lens length, and the tightness of eyelines depending on the position of a character. Soderbergh remembers, "I noticed that there's a space that's inviolate, that if you get within something, you cross the edge into a more theatrical aesthetic as opposed to a documentary aesthetic".<ref name="Hope" /> Most of the day was spent shooting because a lot of the film was shot with available light.<ref name="Kaufman" />

For the hand-held camera footage, Soderbergh used [[Panavision cameras|Panavision Millennium XL]]s that were smaller and lighter than previous cameras and allowed him to move freely.<ref name="Hope" /> He adopted a distinctive look for each to tell the three stories apart. For Robert Wakefield's story, Soderbergh used tungsten film with no filter for a cold, monochrome blue feel.<ref name="Hope" /> For Helena Ayala's story, Soderbergh used diffusion filters, flashing the film and overexposing it for a warmer feel. For Javier Rodriguez's story, the director used [[Mexican filter|tobacco filters]] and a 45-degree shutter angle whenever possible to produce a strobe-like sharp feeling.<ref name="Hope" /> Then, he took the entire film through an [[Ektachrome]] step, which increased the contrast and grain significantly.<ref name="Hope" /> He wanted different looks for each story because the audience had to keep track of many characters and absorb a lot of information, and he did not want them to have to figure out which story they were watching.<ref name="Lemons" />

Benicio del Toro had significant input into certain parts of the film; for example, he suggested a more straightforward, concise way of depicting his character kidnapping Francisco Flores that Soderbergh ended up using.<ref name="Lemons" /> The director cut a scene from the screenplay in which Robert Wakefield smokes crack after finding it in his daughter's bedroom. After rehearsing this scene with the actors, he felt that the character would not do it; after consulting with Gaghan, the screenwriter agreed, and the filmmakers cut the scene shortly before it was scheduled to be shot.<ref name="Divine" />

[[Rancho Bernardo]], [[Balboa Park (San Diego)|Balboa Park]],<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |last=Sklar |first=Debbie L. |date=2025-04-04 |title='Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!' and 9 other off-the-wall movies filmed in San Diego |url=https://timesofsandiego.com/arts/2025/04/04/attack-of-the-killer-tomatoes-and-9-other-off-the-wall-movies-filmed-in-san-diego/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250405081551/https://timesofsandiego.com/arts/2025/04/04/attack-of-the-killer-tomatoes-and-9-other-off-the-wall-movies-filmed-in-san-diego/ |archive-date=2025-04-05 |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=[[Times of San Diego]] |language=en-US}}</ref> [[downtown San Diego]] and [[La Jolla]] were utilized as the environment for the film.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Benninger |first=Michael |date=2016-03-01 |title=Hot Shots |url=https://www.pacificsandiego.com/things-to-do/pac-hot-shots-story.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809120653/https://www.pacificsandiego.com/things-to-do/pac-hot-shots-story.html |archive-date=2020-08-09 |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=Pacific San Diego |language=en-US}}</ref>