How a Utah family's side business became a romance film studio

Brian Brough is a Utah director whose family company, founded in 2000, grew from a side business into a studio that makes romance films, some now on Prime Video and one that aired on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. He and his sister Brittany Wiscombe, who typically writes his films, run Candlelight Media Group in Orem, Utah. Relay lists at least 14 films he has directed.

KSL, a Utah news outlet, reported that the pair grew up in Las Vegas, and that one film class sent Brough to film school at Brigham Young University. KSL reported that the pair started a side business that put the edited college films of Brough and his classmates on VHS tape for distribution through Deseret Book, a Utah retailer, and then moved to DVD and digital. Wiscombe told KSL it took years of sacrifice and that they went a long time without paying themselves.

What does Candlelight make, and why?

The Brough family founded Candlelight in 2000, according to BYU's alumni magazine, to produce, distribute and represent family-friendly films. Their parents, Gregory and Elisa Brough, serve as its CEO and president. In 2006 Wiscombe said the company was a way for the family to make the media they wanted to be associated with, and a way for their parents to guide them and invest in their futures.

That taste shaped the films. For Turn Around, a 2007 story that Brough directed for Latter-day Saint audiences, he told the Deseret News the question was how to show evil without doing evil. The company has since pointed that approach at romance, often shot in Utah. KSL reported that Candlelight shoots its Christmas films entirely in Utah, and Brough told the outlet that real snow always films best.

Which Brough films are on Relay?

The newest is Love Across Time, a 2024 time-travel romance rated G. Chelsea Grayson, a real estate agent played by Aubrey Reynolds, inspects an old British manor and finds a portal through time that brings out the property's 1700s owner, Charles Barkley V, played by Toby-Alexander Smith. As they fall in love, they must save the estate from ruin, even if it costs them something.

Romance

Timeless Love is the one that reached cable. Megan, played by Rachel Skarsten, seems to have a perfect life with a husband and two children. After she wakes from a coma she learns she has never been married, then meets the man she dreamed up and sets out to make him fall in love with her. It aired on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, a cable channel for mystery and drama films, on 14 June 2020, although it is dated 2019. Its male lead, Brant Daugherty, said it was shot in a remote location in Utah and that he liked that it avoided the usual romantic comedy structure.

Romance

An Hour Behind, from 2017, builds a romance on a clock change. Trish, played by Emily Rose, the lead of the Syfy series Haven, forgets to move her clocks for Daylight Saving Time and stands up her blind date. She and Parker, played by Barry Watson, who spent six seasons as Matt Camden on 7th Heaven, hit it off anyway, until a case of mistaken identity threatens the romance.

Romance

Not Cinderella's Type is a 2018 high school retelling based on a novel by Jenni James, the first book of her Modern Fairy Tales series. Indy, played by Paris Warner, is a kind-hearted orphan living with emotionally abusive relatives. A popular boy, played by Tim Flynn, takes an interest after accidentally killing her cat.

Retreat to Paradise goes abroad. IMDb places its filming at a resort in Pacific Harbour, Fiji. Melanie Stone plays Ellie, a physical therapist who treats Jordan, a tennis player recovering from a shoulder injury, played by Casey Elliott.

How has the business changed?

Candlelight's first original feature, Everything You Want, premiered on Disney's ABC Family channel in 2005. Ryan Little, who directed the Utah war film Saints and Soldiers, directed it, and Brough was one of its producers. It is now called Love Surreal on Prime Video.

KSL reported that the DVD market that supported Candlelight crashed, and that streaming platforms such as Hulu and Netflix, where the company had projects, later turned toward bigger studios and away from independent films. In 2015 Brough directed Singing with Angels, a drama built around the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The Daily Herald, a Utah newspaper, reported that the filmmakers got unprecedented access to the choir.

What to watch first

Start with Love Across Time for the newest Brough and its time-travel hook. Choose Timeless Love for the film that Hallmark picked up, and An Hour Behind for a light blind date comedy.

Romance