COEUR d'ALENE - Tim Gerlitz is chasing a wild hare.

That's how the program manager for Idaho's Medicaid bureau for developmental disabilities and art painter describes his project, "Life in a Day CDA," which will see him trade in his day-job and canvass for videography.

But he's been inspired, and when you're inspired convention gets tossed out the window.

"Flying by the seat of our pants," Gerlitz described his project, which will document through videos and photographs one 24-hour window in Coeur d'Alene.

What inspired Gerlitz was a 2011 film titled "Life in a Day." The documentary captured images from around the world in one 24-hour window, and blended the best of 80,000 submissions from 192 countries into one comprehensive look at one day in the life of the world.

"That was really intriguing to me," said Gerlitz, who's been inspired since he first saw the movie.

Now, the self-described amateur photographer wants to capture a similar snapshot of Coeur d'Alene, and the day he selected is Saturday, July 28.

"I hope this takes off," said Gerlitz, who received a $1,000 grant from the Coeur d'Alene Arts Commission to make the project happen.

For the project to take off, however, Gerlitz needs the community's help.

He needs people to shoot photos and film videos of the day's doings. Up to one minute of video or three still photos taken between midnight July 28 and right before midnight on the 29th can be submitted per person. The images should be tastefully done, and Gerlitz has the right to refuse any of them. But the snapshots don't have to be dramatic. In fact, that's what made the world's film so moving, it was normal people captured doing normal things, like going to work or shopping at the market. The other rule is the images have to be captured inside city limits. But the more clips people submit, said Gerlitz, the better the documentary will be. The goal is to create a visually spectacular time capsule - an artistically creative historical document.

Think how cool it would be, he said, if generations before us had the technology to record videos of the day's routines. Think if we could sit down and watch a 24-hour snap shot of one day in 1915.

"It's kind of like opening up a file drawer," he said of the finished project. "But they don't have to wait 100 years to open it."

The finished product will be on the website, www.lifeinadaycda.com in September. The website is up right now, with a clock counting down until the 24-hour window begins. The final product won't be one documentary edited together, rather a whole page devoted to individual videos and pictures. He'll give the finished project to the city of Coeur d'Alene.

On July 28, Gerlitz will set up a booth at Sherman Park downtown Coeur d'Alene handing out flyers the whole day and accepting videos and pictures if people want to drop them off. They can be emailed to him as well at lifeinadaycda@gmail.com.

Gerlitz is the judge on what makes the cut and what doesn't, and promised the overall product would be "G-rated." If subjects appear in photos and want the photos taken down, Gerlitz will oblige.

He chose the date because it's the day after his birthday, and "right smack in the middle of summer" when Coeur d'Alene is busiest, he said, which is the best time "to see what life was like in Coeur d'Alene."