Actually, that’s another part that irritated me from the movie. I believe you’re thinking of the control room scene - where a control room worker acts like she just created these mutts herself in the last five minutes. She shows them off to Seneca, in their wire frame holographic form, and he says something like “those look great,” as in, Wow, we’re just creating this random shit out of nowhere and making it appear in the arena because we’re just that awesome.
And for those explaining things through the books, please know that I don’t have a big issue with the books. It’s the movie that’s got me shaking my head.
…and don’t get me started on how Peeta had a Grade-A Hollywood makeup job on him hiding in the rocks and brush by the river, that he had supposedly applied on his own…when he had a life-threatening injury, no makeup or mirrors (that they showed), lying down on his back without being able to move his head and gained all his camo knowledge by “decorating cakes.” Holy moly, Loretta.
Maybe I imagined this, but I swear that Haymitch mentions some of the bigger districts having multiple lotteries in the first book (which is the only one I’ve read so far).
Part of the worries about the lottery are due to the fact that the very poor have multiple entries each year. In exchange for food the children can have their name added an extra time to the pot. these entries are not wiped out every year but are added so if you have to get extra food five times when you are twelve, three at thirteen, six at fourteen, at fifteen your name is in the pot 18 times, one for each year of age plus the extra slips. Children who are from comfortably off families would only have their name in the pot once per year of age. This lottery is heavily unbalanced in favor of the rich in the districts (presumably because they are the children of people who are supporters of the Capitol.) The poor kids are very worried about drawing their names out of the pot not so much because the districts are small, but because the odds are so very much not in their favor.
“Everyone” in the first book is limited primarily to people from District 12. With the exception of what Rue tells Katniss, we learn almost nothing about how people in most of the other districts feel about things. It says in the book that District 12 has a small population, and that in at least some of the other districts it’s not possible the have everyone gather in one place for the reaping ceremony. The purpose of the Hunger Games isn’t just to terrorize the population, either. It’s also a distraction and an incentive. The victor’s district gets extra food and supplies for the next year. In a couple of the more privileged districts kids train for years to compete in the Games and volunteer themselves intending to win.
As for technology outside the Capitol, in the second book it’s significant to the story that one of the districts specializes in electronics. IIRC one of the districts close to the Capitol specializes in weapons.
I was wondering about the distances and the sizes of these districts… they seemed to ride in that maglev train for a day or two, during which time they could have flown past hundreds of settlements like the one we see at the beginning of the movie.
Regarding technology, it is never stated in the book or movie (which btw, the backstory video was terrible IMO)
But the author herself stated that it would be hundreds of years in the future for America to become the nation of “Panem”(I think she even said bewteen 300 to 700, which according to the Future Timeline website, we will have colonized Venus, Mars and disocvered microbial life on Exoplanets.) Considering this contry has only been around for 200+ years, that’s not entirely far fetched. Thus technology being advanced to the point of enviromental manupliation is not far fetched either, most Hollywood sound stages have a low tech version of that now.
Regarding Distances: The Capitol of Panem is said to be near District 2 if I remember correctly, which is situated in the Rocky Mountains (although to which state I’m not sure) …District 11 is only know to be in “the South” (as it is a refrence to slavery and the inhabitants are described as "mostly’ dark skinned.) And District 12 is located currently near The Applacian Mountains…Also District 4 is know for Fishing…East Coast or West Coast, it dosent say…