The soaring skyscrapers, manicured gardens and rubbish tips of Hong Kong are all shown in this drone footage shot by architect Mariana Bisti, who aimed to capture the city's "complexities and contradictions".

Bisti shot the footage in February this year, while undertaking a 10-week artist residency at Hong Kong Baptist University's Academy of Visual Arts, then cut the imagery down to an eight-minute movie.

She spent time researching and documenting on foot, before deciding that the best way to capture the city would be by drone.

"After my first week there, having spent hours and hours exploring and observing the city's vastness and density from the ground level with my DSLR camera and notebook, I realised that Hong Kong ? the most attractive and mesmerising? dystopia on earth ? deserved an examination from an unconventional viewpoint," Bisti.
With no previous experience shooting with a drone, the Athens and London-based architect taught herself by spending a week watching online tutorials that outlined the best camera settings, flight modes and drone "dos and don'ts".

She then pinpointed key locations in the city, including a range of public and private spaces, prominent buildings, and areas with constant movement.

Bisti also looked for suitable spots for the drone to take off and places that were high enough, while also staying inside the altitude limit, and checked the weather and haze forecast two to three times a day.

She said it &qu...