 The couple "felt a responsibility to do something", which inspired them to write the film, the original working title of which was "The 5Cs".The film was a number of firsts in the film industry; "Singapore Dreaming" was the first Singaporean film to be digitally encoded "and" projected.It was also the first collaboration between Singaporean and New York film-makers; the Director of photography Martina Radwan, editor Rachel Kittner and sound designer Paul Hsu were based in New York, along with the production staff, while composer Sydney Tan was based in Singapore.