 The song 's accompanying music video was directed by Anthony Mandler , and shot on an indoor soundstage in <unk> , California on April 23 , 2008 . The concept for the video was " high @-@ end <unk> " . In an interview with James Montgomery for MTV News whilst on set of the music video , Levine provided a summary of what the video would entail , saying : " It 's this kind of ultra @-@ glamorous , photography @-@ based , <unk> ' 70s / <unk> ' 80s situation . It 's really stylish and really beautiful ... It 's the most choreographed thing I 've ever done , because usually I just get up there and screw around . But with Rihanna , it 's completely different and so cool . " In response , Rihanna continued to say that " I don 't do a lot of videos where I have so much chemistry with the other artist , and this is only my second duet in a video ... It 's really intense , because you have to work with each other so much . It 's new for me , but I 'm enjoying it . " 
