The Art of the Pranking the jokesters behind Natural Born Pranksters

The names Roman Atwood, Dennis Roady, and Vitaly Zdorovetskiy may not be that familiar to you but go to YouTube and you'll see that their channels have some of the largest followings on the internet. The trio have amassed that following by producing candid camera prank videos for years and their taking their talents to the big screen with Natural Born Pranksters. We sat down with the pranksters to discuss their film and making the transition from YouTube to the theater.

 

Shakefire (SF): Why did you three want to team up for this film?

Roman Atwood (RA): Well I think we all felt that we were the guys for the job. We had been maxing and kinda peaking out on YouTube and just thought that it was a whole nother platform that we wanted to jump into.

Dennis Roady (DR): We’re three good best pals and we made a movie! And yeah, we’re the three best friends that anyone could have!

 

SF: Did you guys know each other beforehand?

Vitaly Zdorovetskiy (VZ): We did colabs. We met through Twitter then I flew out to Ohio where we were shooting videos for a year and a half until we made a movie. Then we flew out to LA and the process begun. Six months writing and preparation and then 30 days shooting 12 hour days.

 

SF: That’s a lot of work in a short amount of time. Was this your first time working on a film?

VZ: Absolutely.

 

SF: You’ve done pranks for years now, but it’s been primarily for YouTube. How has the transition been for you?

RA: It was a huge learning curve for us. It wasn’t what we were used to which is running and gunning; one camera, one mic. Then we showed up and there’s like 30 crew members and camera guys hidden all over the streets. Then you have release teams. We pull a prank and we’re like, “Let’s keep going! Let’s keep going!” but you have to wait for the releases to get signed and then your mood would change by the time they signed the released. At least for me it was quite the curve.

DR: And it’s not a traditional movie. There’s not a script. I think the plot is just pranks.

 

SF: You mentioned the format. It very much has a Jackass vibe to it. Was that an inspiration for the film?

RA: They’re definitely deep down in our heads. That’s what we grew up with, too. They’re definitely a huge influence. We did try to make something completely original, something that was a new style. Of course that’s hard to avoid when you’re competing with kings of that entertainment, but I think if anybody compares us to Jackass we’ll take it as a huge honor. They’re the greatest.

 

SF: Lionsgate is releasing the film. Why did you decide to go with them? This seems like it would be the perfect fit for something like YouTube Red. Why did you go with a theatrical release?

DR: Because YouTube Red doesn’t go on the big screen maybe?

VZ: I don’t know. I think Lionsgate’s bigger than YouTube Red.

RA: I don’t think YouTube Red was an option for us at that time, to be honest. We pitched this movie for a long time and there were a lot of potential biters and I think Lionsgate really jumped in. We want this movie, and they stepped up and made it happen.

DR: I think out of all the - now I wasn’t there negotiating the distribution at the table - but from what I understand was that out of everybody that wanted the movie, Lionsgate was the best fit for our movie, for our style, for what they could offer us.

RA: Lionsgate is good with internet type stuff. I think they’re ahead of the curve on the releasing on social and that type of thing. We wanted a bigger theatrical release on this movie, but then we started to learn that theatrical can actually hurt you. Being guys that came from watching movies in the theater, it is a different day and age where people just aren’t going to the theater like they used to unless it’s Avatar or a big comic release. It’s hard to hit that, and it can actually damage you.

 

SF: What were some of your favorite pranks you did for the film?

VZ: I say the stealing gas one. I don’t think it’s in the trailer, but the stealing gas one.

RA: You can actually see my favorite bit in the trailer. I don’t want to give it up, but we have a pregnant woman give birth to a black baby and her husband comes home to reveal that she’s already had the baby.

DR: Yeah, so the mom’s asian, the dad’s white, and the mailman’s black, and the baby is not the ethnicity the dad’s expecting.

RA: It’s like every cereal commercial ever made. White, asian, black; all in one scene. Politically correct prank.

DR: I think everybody across the board loves the baby prank, but if I had to select another one that’s not in the trailer is the liquor store. That’s one that’s very clever, very different. It’s the kind of prank that I really enjoy. You gotta check it out.

 

SF: Do you guys ever get hurt doing these pranks?

RA: I’ve been sore for a couple of days.

VZ: More jail than getting hurt.

RA: Mentally hurt, yeah.

DR: I got a busted nose over a prank before. Sometimes we prank in the hood. We go to areas that some people go, “oh, that’s the hood. That’s dangerous.” So we’ll go there and prank. But ironically, usually when we reveal they have a better sense of humor about it. That’s why we kept going back because it just seemed to work out. But one time we were packing our equipment up at like three in the morning and they tried to jump us and we got hurt there.

 

SF: We’re the cameras rolling then?

VZ: No, our camera man didn’t record!
DR: I think he chickened out.

 

SF: You talk about all these locations. Do you scout ahead? How do you decide where’s the best place to do this pranks?

RA: We started in Columbus, Ohio. Dennis was really good in the cities. He knew where to go. He was the king of that. We would have this idea for a prank and he’d be like, “I know where we’re going.” We’d just hop in his 4Runner and he would just always take us. He was the navigator.

DR: Yeah, I used to mow lawns and pass out flyers and work for UPS in those days so I knew all over the place.

 

SF: With a movie you assume you have a bigger budget than what you’re used to having. Was it fun being able to do a bunch of stuff that you probably thought about doing before but couldn’t because of the money?

DR: The difference is when Roman and I would go film, if I had an idea it’s, “yes, that’s great, let’s go!” or if he had one. We never thought about the what ifs or whys or the reasons not unless there’s a legal issue. Even then we would try to figure out how to make it not so much a legal issue and we would just go. That’s what made us so successful because none of us ever held us back. But in the movie, you have budgets, you have legal, you have insurance, you have releases, you have a production crew, you have so many more elements involved and processes to get to that yes.

RA: I also would say that we were so excited to have what seemed like a big budget until we started making the movie and realized that when you’re making a movie that money goes nowhere. We could write one prank that was more than the entire budget. So it was a very tedious process to make that big budget make a movie.

 

SF: Were there things that you filmed that didn’t make it into the movie that you wished did?

VZ: Naw, probably the reactions sucked would be the only reason it didn’t make it.

RA: We had a pretty serious legal team.

VZ: The bubble porn. The bubble porn didn’t make it in.

RA: Bubble porn was good. Everything was really executed well. By the time we went out to shoot it was this is what you’re shooting every hour of the day. It was a very well executed schedule. There wasn’t any room for anything else.

DR: Right now all the pranks in the movie are not safe for YouTube. They violate the terms of service. So the pranks that we do have in there are great pranks, big budget, lots of background going on to make that prank work. We have accomplices. We have locations. We have crazy hidden cameras. Homeless guys are dressed up, pushing carts but they’re really cameramen with cameras underneath all the trash. Dads pushing the stroller but really it’s a cameraman and there’s a camera in the stroller. Really cool setups. So the pranks that are in there are next level, big dog pranks, but then there’s also pranks that just wouldn’t work in that world with the legal department because there’s a whole lot of risk involved.

 

SF: What did you learn through the movie making process that you’ll take back to YouTube?

DR: I learned a lot about hidden camera.

RA: Camera hides. You can put those things anywhere.

VZ: You couldn’t even tell where the camera was.

DR: Even in the UFO one, right? The way it’s filmed with the UFO prank that we did on the movie you would wonder how the heck they didn’t see it. If you look at behind-the-scenes and the vlog channels you’ll see how they did it and it’s impressive. You would never even see those cameras in there unless you knew where to look.

RA: There’s times we’re out on the streets and we didn’t even know where the cameras were. They just disappeared. Guys wearing backpacks and cameras would be sticking out of a hole and then he’d be standing forward with an iPad and that was his screen for the camera. It’s incredible.