No, it wasn't in black and white, Charlie, but here's what happened. The world of videography came along. Everybody was making a big deal about the fact that there I was, a journalist who could shoot as well, and it was passed off as some kind of art. Quite frankly, it was cheap labour. That's exactly what it was. Instead of two people shooting a story, we had one.
Here's the other side of that coin. I wasn't very good at the camera. I could do a story and I knew the news, but I couldn't do justice to the shooting. But in the midst of all that, somebody who I would consider to be some sort of an artist, and maybe a full-fledged artist, lost his job.
What that did, in my opinion, was degrade the quality of the people we have who shoot video and film, the audio technicians and all of that. What we have devolved into, I think, is an industry that suffers, but the access to the technology has become much easier. In those days, it was a big machine, and it took a long time to edit. Now it's only so big. A 10-year-old can do it. That's a challenge. YouTube is a challenge, no doubt about it, as you've touched on.
Beyond that, it is difficult for the regions to keep people in the television or film industry, because a lot of this work is centralized. I don't know if you'll agree with this, but where I grew up in central Newfoundland, we have a hard time getting people to stay--the artists I spoke of.
What can we suggest to the CRTC to make sure the artists that I mentioned are able to continue their craft and the regions are able to reflect a regional message to a national audience? I think it's going to become a disaster when we're not able to do that in this country. When I was a child, Mickey Mouse and Bonhomme were the same to me. I could recognize both. But as for a Canadian child growing up in central Newfoundland today, I'm not sure if they'd know who Bonhomme is, and that's a shame.
I'd like to know what suggestions we can make to the CRTC. Feel free to talk about the LPIF as well.