Staff Report

Our City, Our Story has received a sponsorship from Duclos Lenses of Los Angeles. Duclos Lenses is the premier national destination for high-quality motion picture optics, catering to the top professionals in the industry. The sponsorship coincides with the first anniversary of the Our City, Our Story video series, as it celebrates its success and broadens its scope in the coming year. Duclos Lenses joins a growing list of local (and now national) sponsors for the project.

In describing why Duclos Lenses supported the Our City, Our Story project, Matthew Duclos said: “Community is key. In any given industry, geography, family … community is what provides and encourages us all. Duclos Lenses, a family company that thrives on community and small projects of all reaches, greatly appreciates and acknowledges the effort required to see potential in a community that others may not.

“The ability to create and share a story is a compelling and necessary task,” Duclos added. “Our City, Our Story is an inspiring project that Duclos Lenses is pleased to support.”

Our City, Our Story Founder Pablo Korona said: “This presents evidence of the universalities of Our City, Our Story. People care about people, and genuinely will cheer them on if given the chance. This is California supporting Rockford, Ill. Thank you, Duclos Lenses. We can now say Rockford stories have ricocheted throughout the nation, from the hallways of NASA to Hollywood.”

The successful Our City, Our Story video series gives voice to the people and stories that define the Rockford community. The pieces, distributed through Facebook and OurCityOurStory.com ^[1], touch on the unique facets of the historic northern Illinois city in an attempt to change social discourse and build civic pride.

As the series continues to grow in popularity, the community is invited to actively participate in and contribute to the compelling stories that celebrate the city’s past, present and future. Viewers can share and comment on existing episodes and suggest possible subjects via Facebook and can contribute financially to help fund the project.

Created by director/producer Korona, the series tells the stories that make the viewer happy to live in, proud to be from or eager to visit Rockford. Korona designed it in direct response to negative national attention the city received in 2011 from publications such as Forbes magazine, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The series tells affirmative stories that exemplify the character of those within the city.

Our City, Our Story was created in February 2012. Korona directs, produces, shoots and edits the 3- to 5-minute pieces, which reside at OurCityOurStory.com ^[1], but are primarily channeled out through their Facebook page at http://fb.com/OurCityOurStory ^[2]. The video project is scheduled to yield a minimum of 26 stories.

In addition to Korona’s efforts, the project utilizes the audio engineering skills of Zach Staas and the musical expertise of Daniel James McMahon, who composed original music for the Academy Award-winning film Undefeated.

Korona is a Rockford-based director/producer whose experience includes broadcast television commercials, Internet video and company promo segments. For more information, visit pablokorona.com ^[3].

From the Feb. 13-19, 2013, issue