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GREENSBORO — Doug Heberle slipped into his hazmat uniform in a parking garage. Judy Miller Cooper’s fingers were green from the food coloring she used to mix an “antidote” earlier that day. And by late afternoon Saturday, Ioannis Batsios was already two hours behind in filming the drama “Quarantine.”

But when making a movie in 48 hours, there are no dressing rooms, no time to stop and wash your hands and filming can’t be postponed for the next day.

“It’s very challenging,” said Batsios, the film’s director.

The 48-Hour Film Project returned to Greensboro this past weekend and amateur and not-so-amateur filmmakers and actors put their talents to work — some looking to one day break into feature films, others just hoping to have fun.

Participants on Friday pulled a genre from a hat. Among the many possibilities were silent film, comedy, thriller, film noir, musical and romance. They were required to incorporate certain elements in their films: use of a bandanna as a prop, a character who played the role of a professional organizer and went by the name Marla or Martin Dockery, and the line “You think you know everything.”

Sarah Al-Jaouni stood nervously as an agent from the Centers for Disease Control said those words to her while staring her down from behind glass, interrogating her about whether she had anything to do with a viral outbreak.

The agent, Greensboro real estate attorney Heberle, wrote the script from which he spoke. The film crew, which contained more than a dozen members, brainstormed late into the night Friday, and Heberle whittled their thoughts to a seven-page script about a small office staff that is infected by a virus.

By 3 a.m. the script was ready, but it would change as filming got under way.

“It’s always going to be a dynamic process, ever changing,” Heberle said.

Batsios said he was thrown behind in filming because the script didn’t turn out exactly how he envisioned. The crew spent a large part of Saturday “quarantined” in a warehouse and didn’t make it to an office complex off Pinecroft Road to film final scenes until later that afternoon.

There, Cooper, a production assistant, took a break from the duties she had been asked to perform that day, including making blood and antidote for the virus. Soon, she was called by another crew member to act as a stand-in.

Batsios has participated in the film project for four years and has dreams of directing feature films.

While things didn’t go completely as planned this year, he knows one thing for sure. “I’ll definitely be doing it again next year.”

On Sunday, the crews rushed to hand in their films by 7:30 p.m. at the Broach Theatre downtown. All the films will be screened this week, but only the ones that made the deadline will be judged. The judges will choose one film to advance to the international competition. Out of the 35 entries this year, 23 made the deadline.

“They’re disappointed if they’re a little late, but what I consistently hear is they’ve had a good time,” said Iris Carter, who is the project organizer for Greensboro.

“It’s the challenge people enjoy — can they produce a viewable short in 48 hours.”

Staff writer Jamie Kennedy Jones contributed to this story.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 373-7080 or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com