Brigham Young University. Motion Picture Studio

Management of the Motion Picture Studio was transferred from Brigham Young University to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1990, and it was renamed, "LDS Motion Picture Studio."

The Brigham Young University Motion Picture Studio was managed by the school, and produced religious and educational films on a variety of subjects. The studio's management was transferred to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1990.

Originally had a version in sign language.

In the late 1950s the Church was once again in a financial crisis because of excessive building programs and other causes. The Presiding Bishopric commissioned this film to help in a reformation similar to that of 1899; the brief was for a film on tithing, and Scott Whitaker struck upon this particular story. Both the scope of production and publicity for the film were the greatest of any BYU film up to this point. The thirty minute commission grew into a fifty minute production, their longest yet. Hundreds of Church members were involved, including Harold B. Lee, who scouted for period locomotives. The members in St. George, including some who were present at the actual meeting, were particularly stallwart in creating this film, which they saw as their story. President David O. McKay, who knew President Snow, was greatly moved and after a St. George premiere it was distributed throughout the Church. The film became BYU's most popular and it effected a similar retrenchment in tithing, and the financial crisis was solved. Scott Whitaker's script was based primarily on the writings of Lorenzo Snow's son LeRoi. In his article, E. Jay Bell discusses several differences between historical and film events, foremost among them the fact that President Snow never mentioned anything about rainfall in connection with tithing.

The first large building constructed in 1958 was the BYU Motion Pictures Studio. As early as the summer of 1952 the General Authorities of the Church had expressed a desire to initiate a motion picture program to produce films for the Church's auxiliary organizations, priesthood quorums, bishop training seminars, and welfare programs. They were convinced that BYU was the ideal place to launch such a program. In that same year Church leaders asked Wetzel "Judge" Whittaker, director of animation at Walt Disney Studios, to head the new nonacademic Department of Motion Picture Production. From 1953-1958 the Motion Picture Department was housed in a temporary building with a small sound stage east of the North Building at the present site of the Harold B. Lee Library. In April 1958 construction of a new studio began on a secluded 15-acre rural tract in the Provo River bottoms north of Provo. Eleven months later the 13,160-square-foot structure was dedicated by Carl W. Buehner, then a counselor in the Presiding Bishopric of the Church. The Department of Motion Picture Production was at the time solely a production organization for the Church and not a part of the University's academic curriculum.

BYU Motion Picture Studio began in 1953. The BYU Motion Picture Studio became part of the Church Audiovisual Department in 1991 when church leaders decided to separate the studio from BYU and rename it the LDS Motion Picture Studio. It is now run using only church funds.

The Brigham Young University Motion Picture Studio produced numerous films for the university and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Control over the Motion Picture Studio was transferred to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the late 1990s.