Talent finds 'tape' is taking over the town.(V PLUS YOUTH IMPACT REPORT 2011)

Like the kids themselves, youth casting is getting tech savvy: auditions recorded by digital camera, submitted by via email or Vimeo, followed by callbacks over Skype.

"It's become an integral part of the business," says United Talent Agency youth guru Mitchell Gossett. "There's not a single casting office in town that doesn't accept it on a daily basis"--where "it" is so-called "tape," an endearingly old-school name for the process by which actors record their own auditions via iPhone or Flip cam and submit the videos for casting consideration.

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The biz still refers to it as "tape" because that's how it started: With bulky, 3/4-inch cassettes being overnight-shipped back and forth across the country from out-of-town …