800 Performers, 9,000 Audience Members, 1 Big Castle: How the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Comes Together

Playbill: Michael Braithwaite used to be a puppeteer on the Harry Potter films. In the late ’90s, early 2000s, he was a creative director at Jim Henson's Creature Shop and he was asked to work on the first two films in the wizarding franchise. Potter-heads might remember Braithwaite’s work—he was one of the puppeteers in the devil’s snare scene in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, a monstruous vine plant which he also helped build. “I got lost in that one day for half an hour,” he recalls. “I was so keen to stay out of the camera shot, so I stayed down and stayed quiet until I finally got a cramp and came out and found the studio deserted. Somebody had called lunch, and I hadn't heard.”