We use cookies and similar technologies to run this website and improve your experience. We only set non-essential cookies (such as analytics or marketing) with your permission, collected via our cookie banner and the settings on this page. You can change your choices at any time.
1. What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files placed on your device by a website. They can be used to enable core functionality, remember your preferences, understand how the site is used, and measure marketing performance.
2. How we use cookies & your choices
When you first visit, you'll see a cookie banner with options to Accept all, Reject non-essential, or Customise. You can reopen the banner anytime via the “Cookie Settings” link in our footer or on this page. We store your choice in a first-party cookie (see table below) and may re-prompt you if our policy or categories change.
Where supported, we also honour Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals by treating them as an opt-out for non-essential cookies until you make a choice in our banner.
3. Cookie categories
- Essential: Required to operate the site securely and reliably (e.g., authentication/session, security, payment fraud prevention, your cookie preference).
- Analytics (opt-in): Help us understand traffic and performance (e.g., Google Analytics 4). We only load these after you give consent.
- Preferences (opt-in): Remember non-critical choices like UI settings. We only use these if needed.
- Marketing (opt-in): Measure and improve advertising (e.g., Meta Pixel, if used). Only loaded with consent.
We also use Vercel Web Analytics, which is cookie-free and privacy-friendly; it does not store identifiers on your device.
Separately, we record a limited set of product events on our own servers around key interactions such as creating an account, completing onboarding, or taking a first action. This is first-party measurement used to understand and improve onboarding and the product. It is not a cookie and appears in the table below only as sz_door, the short-lived cookie that carries your home-page choice through sign-up. No identifier is stored on your device for this purpose, and we do not create a durable anonymous id to follow visitors between sessions. Signed-in events are linked to your account unless you turn off the telemetry preference in your account settings, in which case they are recorded without your account identifier. Product events are kept for 120 days. See our Privacy Policy for detail.
4. Cookies we use
| Name | Provider | Category | Purpose | Expiry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sz_consent | Stage Zero (first-party) | Essential | Stores your cookie consent choices (categories & version). | 12 months |
| sz_door | Stage Zero (first-party) | Essential | Remembers which option you chose on the home page (“I want to make my film”, “I want to work on films”, and so on) so the choice survives signing up and we do not have to ask you again. Set only when you choose one, read once when your account is created, then cleared. | 1 hour |
| site_auth | Stage Zero (first-party) | Essential | Allows access to the site when a temporary site lock is enabled. | Session |
| next-auth.session-token | NextAuth | Essential | Keeps you signed in and secures your session. | Up to ~30 days (default) |
| next-auth.csrf-token | NextAuth | Essential | Protects against cross-site request forgery during authentication. | Session |
| next-auth.callback-url | NextAuth | Essential | Remembers where to send you after signing in. | Session |
| __stripe_mid / __stripe_sid | Stripe | Essential | Fraud prevention and payment reliability during checkout. | ~1 year / ~30 minutes |
| _ga, _ga_<measurement-id> | Google Analytics 4 | Analytics (opt-in) | Helps us understand visits, top pages, and site performance. | Up to ~2 years |
| — | Vercel Web Analytics | Analytics | Cookieless, privacy-friendly traffic insights. | No cookie stored |
| _fbp (if enabled) | Meta | Marketing (opt-in) | Ad attribution and audience measurement. | ~3 months |
Notes: We may update this table as we add or remove services. Exact names and durations can vary by provider.
5. Managing cookies
Use the Cookie Settings link in our footer (or the banner) to change your choices at any time. Most browsers also let you block or delete cookies via settings. Blocking essential cookies may impact the site’s functionality.
6. Changes to this policy
We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time. Any changes will appear here with an updated Effective Date. If changes are significant, we may re-prompt for consent via our banner.
7. Contact us
Questions about this policy or our use of cookies?
Email: hello@stagezerocreative.com
Postal Address: 71–75 Shelton Street, London, WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom