This is a remarkable Second Life machinima for many reasons: Created by the acclaimed SL machinimist known as BoBE Schism, it's easily among the very best SL machinimas I've ever seen. But that's just the start: It's using Einstein's official Second Life avatar, approved by the executors of the great physicist's estate, and the machinima itself is a promotional ad for a virtual fundraiser for real medical research, with avatars running in SL to raise funds to support research to battle HIV/AIDS, Prostate Cancer, Breast Cancer, Diabetes, Alzheimer's Disease, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Parkinson's Disease, Visual Impairment, Autism and Spinal Cord Injury. Read more about the Virtual Marathon for Medical Research here.

So it's great SL content created on behalf of a real world cause. To make it, Mr. Schism employed some pretty impressive visual and audio tricks. For Einstein's voice, for example, "I coerced the only local real life German friend I have into voicing Albert," he tells me. "But his voice is quite high, so I pitch shifted him down a touch to give him suitable gravitas. Now, every time I speak to him on the phone it sounds like I'm speaking to Albert Einstein on helium. I'm not a big fan of SL lip syncing, but think I just about pulled it off without it looking looking too much like a 70s kung fu movie." I agree on both counts, especially as Einstein's bushy mustache helps quite a lot.

More production notes from BoBE Schism after the break -- machinima makers, be sure to take notes: