Well, I guess I take the view that if you want to do it, you do your homework and you go out and do it. I have a lot of respect for that approach, provided you take reasonable precautions and don't put others in harm's way.

On the other hand, if you're doing a shoestring budget, Indie-type promotion, and want to create some buzz, you set up a website with a sexy tag line, take a pro cameraman along with you, sell memberships for ongoing access to your footage, track hits, and see if it takes you somewhere.

Standard practise these days is: if you want to get noticed in documentary or series TV production, don't show up with a good pitch, show up with compelling footage. Then the chequebooks come out, and you get the funding to finish what you have started. Pretty sure that's the end game; or at least, that's the plan to pay the bills for a month off work.

That doesn't mean what we see will be fake; win or lose, it will probably be genuine. And I hope these guys succeed. They have certainly set themselves a tall challenge in an incredibly short time frame (i.e., how to boil water with nothing is the big one for me). If they solve that, they're in the running.

With all honesty, though, the information on their website does not inspire confidence. Perhaps that's what is driving the skeptical comments here.

Anyway, time will tell.

(Broadcasting from somewhere near Edmonton ...)