In 1972, Burstall became a partner in a new film production company, Hexagon Productions. Their first project was meant to be "Sittin"' based on a script from David Williamson but Williamson was still lecturing at the time as well as being inundated with other work and was not able to complete it in time (it eventually became "Petersen" (1974)). Burstall then decided to make an Australian version of "The Decameron", which was popular in cinemas at the time, and would enable Hexagon to take advantage of the new "R" certificate, which had been introduced to Australia in 1971. Another influence was "Bedroom Mazurka".