Emaciation

Emaciation what occurs with extreme weight loss and unnatural thinness, it is caused by severe malnutrition and starvation which are often indicators of disease, poverty and famine as well as digestive system disorders and eating disorders. Malnutrition can often result in conditions such as organ shut down or it makes people so vulnerable to disease that they are unable to fight any form of infection, causing them to grow very sick and weary very easily. In terms of make-up effects for emaciation, there is a variety of techniques that can be used to give the look of a character who is suffering from emaciation such as; contouring various areas of the face and body in order to make the skin look more sallow (focusing around the eyes and cheekbones) as well as creating a hair thinning or hair loss effect as that adds to the impact of the overall look. For more extreme effect, prosthetic pieces or dummy doubles can be used. Along with this, there are other techniques outside of make-up that can be used in filming to give the illusion of emaciation such as clothing that is purposely too big for the actor and often the way the scene is shot can help to add to the effect. Although a lot of the time, slim actors will be cast to play such roles and in rare occasions, some actors will method act and therefore physically change their body type for the role such as Christian Bale.