Synopsis

Jimmy Eat World's "Work" video turns a typical high school into a portrait of uncertainty, expectation, and youthful freedom. Students are interviewed about their lives, ambitions, and feelings about graduation, while scenes follow them through classes, hallways, and after-school activities. Skateboarding, parties, and destructive teenage mischief contrast with the more thoughtful interviews. The band performs outdoors beneath a tree, giving the video a relaxed counterpoint to the students' reflections and capturing the restless transition between adolescence and adulthood.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed at Madison West High School in Madison, Wisconsin, using actual students from the school.

• The production was built around the idea of presenting a "typical high school" rather than creating a polished, fictionalized teenage world.

• Several students were connected to Rebecca Jallings, a theater teacher who had remained in contact with the production after director Marc Webb's own time at Madison West.

• The students' interviews focus on their futures and their lives after graduation, which mirrors the uncertainty at the center of the song.

• "Work" was released as the second single from Jimmy Eat World's 2004 album *Futures*. The video appeared in 2005.

• Liz Phair provides backing vocals on the recording, adding a distinct guest presence to one of the album's most radio-friendly tracks.

• The video's documentary-like approach helped it stand apart from more performance-driven rock videos of the period, and former participants later recalled seeing the finished clip on MTV.