The Story Behind Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" Video

Last week Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" music video made YouTube history. With over 184 million views and counting, it became the most viewed video of all time on the site.

That's a big feat considering it was only uploaded in November of 2009 and competes against other longstanding viral phenoms including "Charlie Bit My Finger- again!," "Evolution of Dance" and "7 Things," by Miley Cyrus.

But what's the story behind the video's crazy costumes and moves? I spoke to the director, Francis Lawrence, who has directed other pop sensations like Britney Spears, Jay-Z, Black Eyed Peas and even feature film stars like Will Smith in I Am Legend.

"The final concept behind the video, there's a little hidden story of she and these other girls are kind of vampires and they're in this somewhat futuristic eastern European spa. They are auctioning girls to these guys that come, and [Gaga] gets auctioned off to this guy, and she ends up killing him," he said. "What we wanted to do is not be so literal about the story, but tell it like you would see a story told in an editorial spread in a fashion magazine... The fashion is all Lady Gaga and her team. She has a creative director and a whole group of people that she calls the House of Gaga, and they're pulling references from all types of stuff- painting and photography."

So what's it like working with Gaga - the person - who seems hard to peg?

"She's not really playing a character," Lawrence told me. "I think she really is Gaga. She's always dressed in a unique way, whether you're having a meeting with her in the recording studio or she's on set in this video. She's a very unique person. She's very creative, a great musician and a little bit of a performance artist. She's very much into fashion, photography and art, and so that comes out."