After graduating from the University of Virginia, the Baltimore-born Pellington won a position with MTV's on-air promotions team, where he created the network's definitive multimedia logos and interstitials. He soon began directing music videos, and his early work, for artists such as PM Dawn and De La Soul reflected the vibrant use of color present in his MTV logos. In 1992, he began his influential work with the internationally famous rock band U2 when he helmed one of the many versions of the video for their hit "One." Pellington's version, featuring slow motion blurry footage of running bison was phased out by MTV, with the network labeling the video as too experimental for heavy rotation. An exploration of the AIDS themes of the song, the video incorporated powerful imagery from artist David Wojnarowicz's work, featuring the artist's image of the free running buffalo being herded over a cliff. The video was created as a meditative backdrop for the song's performance during the band's "Zoo TV" tour to support the album, Achtung Baby. Pellington additionally directed and created much of the compelling "Zoo TV" atmosphere, comprised of dozens of screens of jarring and disjointed media images. He would go on to direct several more thematically startling and visually arresting music videos, including his starkly shot anorexia-themed "Beautiful Girl" by INXS and the 1993 MTV Video Music Award winning "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam, a striking and stylized look at senseless youth violence. Additionally, he directed several high-profile commercials.
The atmospheric independent "Going All the Way," based on screenwriter Dan Wakefield's 1970 best selling novel, chronicled the bond of friendship formed by two very different young men returning to their hometown after service in the Korean War, Pellington's debut feature was a sensitive and faithful adaptation of Wakefield's novel, played out with intriguing visuals and unique use of color and light that became the director's trademark. He also elicited fine performances from Jeremy Davies as shy and awkward Sonny Burns and Ben Affleck as the more gregarious and self-assured Gunner Casselman, as well as painting a moving portrait of the pair with their triumphs and humiliations as they undertake their quest for answers and find the strength of friendship.
The director's second feature, "Arlington Road" (1999) also did not disappoint. This well-paced thriller, starring Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack started out with a bang, a jolting surrealistic opening scene that set the film's tone. Based on the growing presence of domestic terrorism and its insidious proximity, the film traces the doubts and suspicions Bridges has about his seemingly perfect neighbors (Robbins and Cusack) and their political leanings. Visually and thematically provocative, "Arlington Road" managed to conjure both thought and terror, succeeding as a contemporary statement and as suspenseful entertainment.