Director/writer/producer: Kal Ng

* Coproducers: Chow Keung, Paul Lee

* DOPs: Gavin Liew, Derek Rogers * Editors: Louis Yang, Kal Ng * Diary by: Dustin Dinoff

according to Hong Kong-based director Kal Ng, his new film Dreamtrips is an extension of sorts of his first film, The Soul Investigator. The director/writer/ producer says his sophomore effort, screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, like his first, is rooted in the science fiction genre. The film explores the idea of a girl who searches inside a computer-generated dream world for her lost boyfriend, becoming addicted to the experience and resisting a return to the real world.

‘The Soul Investigator is a mythic story, where the protagonist went into his own psyche, sort of his inner world, but the film didn’t show it,’ says Ng. ‘At that point virtual reality had just come up, so combining that I figured that it is possible to create something like Soul Investigator inside a computer and have a person experience that world and go inside it.’

Ng shot Dreamtrips in Canada and Hong Kong, using different crews, each of which was under 10 people.

For a budget of under $200,000, Ng has managed to put together a film that captivated many at the Hong Kong Film Festival earlier this year.

‘I think the audience loved it,’ he says. ‘They had never seen anything like it before.’

Under the banner of Kino Gedanken Experiments, and using money from both the Hong Kong and Canadian governments for financing, Ng began his quest to make Dreamtrips just after The Soul Investigator opened at the Taipei Film Festival.

Early 1996: After success at the Taipei and Berlin film festivals, Ng starts thinking about his next project. He develops a storyline and presents a copy of The Soul Investigator and his proposal for Dreamtrips to the Ontario Arts Council, Heritage Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts, securing development money from all three.

He receives enough to start production, but is still working on the script at the time. Ng feels he received the money thanks to the success of Soul Investigator on the festival circuit.

Fall/winter 1996: Ng presents a proposal for Dreamtrips to the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and receives enough funding to start shooting.

February 1997: The director returns to Hong Kong and finds a day job at the Hong Kong Arts Center, and, as he says, ‘got some money to live on’ as development on Dreamtrips continues.

July 12, 1997: In Hong Kong, Ng sets out to briefly test some film but ends up shooting for the whole day. According to Ng, the weather on this particular day is exceptional, and what starts as film testing turns into a day’s worth of footage for Dreamtrips.

September 1997: Ng is forced to quit his job at the Arts Center because Dreamtrips’ shooting schedule becomes too time consuming.

‘It was simply too much,’ says Ng. ‘I was making a feature film, so I quit my job and put full time (energy) into Dreamtrips.’

Up to this point, Ng and his Hong Kong crew had only been filming on the weekends, so that Ng could keep his day job.

October 1997: Shooting continues full time in Hong Kong and Ng starts to plan a trek back to Toronto for footage.

Nov. 5, 1997: Ng returns to Toronto and shoots for five days. Although he admits the elements seemed to be against him, with the weather turning colder and the daylight running short, Ng considers those five days ‘lucky.’

Before shooting a very important scene involving sand dunes in Kingston, Ont., it begins to snow.

‘I thought I was going to be stuck in the hotel,’ he says. ‘Then things cleared up beautifully and I had two days of sunshine in the middle of a snowy season. I thought that was very lucky.’

Following the Toronto shoot Ng flies back to Hong Kong and shoots for two more days. Production stops when the money runs out and Ng will wait nearly an entire year to finish Dreamtrips.

March 1998: Ng submits another proposal to the Hong Kong Arts Development Council requesting funding to finish the film. He’s rejected. Without money to complete shooting and start post-production, he begins editing the footage he has already shot.

July 1998: Ng resubmits his post-production proposal to the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

September 1998: To his delight the money comes through and Ng reshoots some scenes.

Late September 1998: Shooting on Dreamtrips finally wraps.

February 1999: Ng and editor Louis Yang edit and re-edit Dreamtrips, putting together two versions of the film. Ng describes Yang’s version as more television-friendly and his own cut as more of a film version. Naturally Ng chooses the latter.

April 1999: Dreamtrips debuts at the Hong Kong Film Festival, where Ng says audience response is favorable, but the response from festival directors is mixed due, Ng feels, to the subject matter.

September 1999: Dreamtrips makes its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Perspective Canada program.

‘I think Toronto is getting to be a very important festival,’ he says. ‘It’s really good exposure, North American-wise.’