Product/Audience Research

There is a new fly on the wall documentary for channel four called The Family. I decided to research the making of this documentary because i wanted to find out more about how channel 4 went about making their documentaries. I found out that channel 4 is taking a new approach to filming; Jonathan Smith the director of The Family quotes "I'd become convinced that the detail and intimacy of our approach could capture something new about family life." I like the idea of the "intimacy approach" for my documentary, as it provides the audience with entertainment as well as real and genuine opinions about greek food. Jonathan Smith goes onto say "There would be no director asking people how they felt and the place of long interviews would be taken by conversations between members of the family." This would work well for my audience research as well. As well as getting feedback from questionnaires, i could get general feedback from what my friends think about greek food etc, by them talking amongst themselves. This approach will give me a genuine, overall outlook.
I would like to,if i could,it may be difficult due to regulations with camera equipment; but to leave the camera in the room whilst my friends are cooking the greek meal. In a way it would be like spying on them, this would give that "intimacy approach" I was hoping for. Like Jonathan Smith did with The Family: "So instead of wandering around the house with a camera crew, we would sit in the cottage next door where we created our gallery and watch life unfold."