>>18209870
For a shoot, it's because the crowd needs to catch the expressions from a distance.
They do the same thing in theater, for TV you'd do minimal makeup since the camera's close and the picture gets projected bigger on the screen, and for the stage you put on way more colourful and expressive makeup so the people in the back can see the colours.
That's also why clowns have exaggerated makeup instead of subtle makeup, for the people up in the bleachers, and unironically why the vaudeville blackface gimmick featured exaggerated mouth sizes, massive wigs and other out-of-proportion parts of the outfit.
Wasn't necessarily a race thing, black performers did it too.
