Surf City on silver screen

There’s a rock formation northeast of Los Angeles that you know. You

may not know you know it, but you do.

Its most notable feature is the series of huge, triangular and

jagged rocks that climb hundreds of feet into the air. And since the

early 1900s it’s been a frequent, popular film location. It’s in a

car commercial running on TV right now. It was shown on Bonanza and

the movie “Austin Powers.” And, perhaps most famously of all, the

large rocks were used repeatedly in the original “Star Trek” TV show.

The rocks are in Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, which Los

Angeles County got control of in the 1970s. And they just might be

the best known stones -- that haven’t been cut and shaped by humans

-- in the world.

Now, imagine if the Huntington Beach Pier were as well known, if

it were o7the f7pier that filmmakers, commercial producers and TV

directors all turned to when they wanted to shoot a beach scene.

That could be the pier’s future, if a plan by the Huntington Beach

Conference and Visitor’s Bureau works out. The bureau is spending

$25,000 of its city-provided funding on a marketing plan to encourage

the filming of the pier, as well as downtown Huntington Beach,

Central Park and perhaps the municipal gym and swimming pool.

The bottom-line reason for bringing the cameras to town goes

beyond the $500 a day in permits, plus any police and support

service, that the city charges. In 2002, filmmakers spent about $11

million in the city during shootings, dollars that go directly into

the city’s tax revenue pool.

That’s real money, and that’s a real reason for the bureau to make

sure the curtain doesn’t fall too quickly on this plan.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

How would you sell Huntington Beach to film and commercial

companies? Call our Reader’s Hotline at (714) 966-4691 or send e-mail to o7hbindependent@latimes.comf7. Please spell your name and

include your hometown and phone number for verification purposes.