Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz Direct a Katy Perry Film Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz in their office in Los Angeles. IN February, Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz were asked to direct "Katy Perry: Part of Me," a 3-D concert movie on which they were already producers. The bad news for Mr. Cutforth and Ms. Lipsitz, an Emmy-winning team known by the company name Magical Elves Inc., was that "Part of Me" had to be finished and in movie theaters by early July. That meant they had just a few months to sift through more than 300 hours of already-shot behind-the-scenes and onstage footage of Ms. Perry; determine a narrative; film their own talking-head interviews; locate archival clips of this big-eyed chart-topping pop star; and complete the movie. Mr. Cutforth and Ms. Lipsitz have made a name for themselves producing compulsively watchable reality television series like "Top Chef" and "Project Runway," so they knew that with their army of editors, researchers and loggers already in place, the job would get done. But in an interview in the conference room of their headquarters on Sunset Boulevard here, Ms. Lipsitz - who joined in the discussion by speakerphone - admitted that she, Mr. Cutforth and their staff were still reeling from the experience. "Um, don't walk around asking the people who work for us how they're doing, O.K.?" she said with a dry laugh. I'm sure they'd have a lot to say about it. How did two reality television producers end up making their film directorial debut with a $10 million documentary about a global pop superstar? It makes sense once you consider that in August of 2010 the two were hired by Paramount Pictures to work on the feature-length documentary "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," directed by Jon M. Chu. Credited as producers on that project, they were also in charge of adding reality television elements - on-camera confessionals, goofy slice-of-life moments - as a way of injecting intimacy into a highly polished form of entertainment that Adam Goodman, the president of Paramount Film Group, calls a "docu-event." "It's all about trying to create the thrill of a live event," said Mr. Goodman, who added that the Elves were a good match for the film, based on qualities they bring to their television projects: "a real attention to character development, a true understanding of how stories arc, a completely bizarre capability to do amazing amounts of work in very short periods of time and incredible stamina." Perhaps based on the philosophy that if it's not broken, don't fix it, "Never Say Never" served as a template of sorts for "Part of Me." Mr. Bieber's 105-minute cinematic confection grossed over $98 million worldwide. Ms. Perry and Mr. Bieber's rise to fame could not be more different: He's a Canadian wunderkind discovered on YouTube; she was raised in California and performed as the gospel rocker Katy Hudson before taking the world by storm as the cartoonishly dressed warbler of catchy tunes about sex, sun and doing your own thing. Mr. Cutforth and Ms. Lipsitz said that in some ways "Never Say Never" and "Part of Me" were destined to be similar. And not just because both acts have a loyal following of squealing preteen girls. "The life of a modern pop star on the road is pretty much the same whether you're Justin Bieber or Metallica," said Mr. Cutforth, who was born in rural Wiltshire, England, and got his start at the light entertainment branch of the BBC. The visual language of being on tour is always very similar: You've got fans, an entourage, backstage moments, traveling moments. To illustrate how they made the films distinctive, though, Ms. Lipsitz offered an example: "It's like a doctor drama. There's patients, doctors in scrubs, they're in an operating room. But ultimately what makes a medical drama different are the characters and the story being told. That's how we felt about this. Justin is a 16-year-old boy and Katy is a 27-year-old woman. Ms. Lipsitz, a Vassar-educated Angeleno who is from the Upper West Side of Manhattan, added, "The gender difference and the age difference are as different as can be, and their stories are inherently different." Mr. Cutforth and Ms. Lipsitz jokingly call "Part of Me" the " "Paranormal Activity" of the music world," referring to Paramount's 2009 supernatural horror film that's presented as a spooky found-footage documentary. The comparison stems from the fact that the majority of the Perry footage was shot by two British filmmakers, Edward Lovelace and James Hall, who were paid roughly $800,000 by Ms. Perry to capture her yearlong "California Dreams" tour, which took its toll on her marriage to the British comedian Russell Brand. Mr. Cutforth said he understood what riches lay in Mr. Lovelace and Mr. Hall's mountain of footage when staff members cataloging the hours of makeup-free downtime, preperformance prayer circles and fan meet and greets, excitedly flagged a raw moment unflinchingly recorded. In it Ms. Perry, usually seen as indestructibly bouncy, is slumped in a reclining makeup chair, twisting her wedding ring and sobbing. Mr. Cutforth said: "That was the first thing we saw where it was like, "No matter what, we have to make this work because it's so intimate and intense." You just can't believe you're there. Luckily for them Ms. Perry agreed. "Part of Me," she wrote via e-mail, is "a snapshot of an incredible year in my life. I like showing people what it took to get to this place - you see all the hard work it took and that I just didn't win a fame lottery. The directors see the film as "a bit of a modern-day fairy tale," Ms. Lipsitz said. So much so that they plan to ignore Ms. Perry's often suggestive lyrics and bring their young children - both filmmakers are married, though not to each other - to the premiere. "It all ends well for her despite the fact that Prince Charming doesn't ride in on a stallion," Ms. Lipsitz said. She stayed true to herself, and is considerate and respectful of the world and in the end that's a really positive message.