STAGE ZERO - Payments and Crowdfunding

STAGE ZERO is a UK-based platform for early-stage independent film, television, and media project ideas. The Platform helps users create Project pages, find collaborators, build teams, grow audience interest, and raise non-investment crowdfunding support for production-related costs where available.

On STAGE ZERO, a Project is a film, television, or media idea, concept, pitch, or proposal posted by a user to seek help bringing that concept closer to production.

A Project may be posted to seek collaboration, crew members, production help, feedback, audience interest, crowdfunding support, or a combination of these.

Projects are not published films, completed media works, streaming uploads, distribution listings, content sales, pay-per-view products, downloads, or monetised media items. STAGE ZERO does not allow Projects to be used to publish, distribute, sell, license, stream, broadcast, monetise, or commercially exploit completed creator-owned or third-party media content.

STAGE ZERO accepts, or is preparing to accept, payments for the following platform services:

Crowdfunding on STAGE ZERO is designed to help approved Project Posters receive audience support for specific early-stage film, television, or media Projects posted on the Platform.

• A user creates or submits a Project before payment-enabled crowdfunding is made available.
• STAGE ZERO may review the user, Project description, production status, budget, intended use of funds, team details, collaboration needs, Project materials, location, ownership information, and risk factors before enabling payments.
• Supporters can contribute to approved Projects through the Platform.
• Contributions are intended to support production-related costs for the specific Project described by the Project Poster.
• STAGE ZERO collects a 5% platform fee on crowdfunding contributions and may route or pay out funds to approved Project Posters through supported payment-provider flows.
• Users receiving crowdfunding payouts may be required to complete payment-provider onboarding, identity checks, payout verification, and any other checks required by the payment provider before payouts are enabled.
• Payouts may be subject to verification, fraud monitoring, dispute checks, chargeback risk, Project review, contribution limits, campaign caps, prohibited-jurisdiction controls, sanctions controls, intellectual-property review, and payment-provider requirements.

STAGE ZERO sets contribution limits and campaign controls to manage fraud, chargeback risk, compliance obligations, and platform safety.

• STAGE ZERO may set minimum and maximum contribution amounts, per-supporter limits, campaign funding goals, campaign caps, and other payment limits.
• STAGE ZERO may reject, pause, refund, or review contributions that appear unusually large, repeated, suspicious, inconsistent with the stated Project purpose, or otherwise high-risk.
• A Project may not receive crowdfunding contributions above its stated funding goal unless STAGE ZERO permits this in accordance with its review and compliance processes.
• Projects seeking unusually high funding goals may be subject to additional review, additional information requests, payout delays, or other controls before crowdfunding or payouts are enabled.
• Contribution limits, campaign limits, payout limits, and review thresholds may change over time based on platform risk, payment-provider requirements, legal obligations, fraud patterns, dispute activity, or operational needs.

STAGE ZERO does not permit Projects, transactions, contributions, accounts, payouts, or support involving prohibited jurisdictions, sanctioned regions, sanctioned persons, restricted persons, illegal activity, sanctions evasion, money laundering, or payment-provider rule violations.

• STAGE ZERO does not permit transactions involving Stripe-prohibited jurisdictions, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions, or any other jurisdiction, person, entity, or activity prohibited by Stripe, sanctions authorities, payment providers, or applicable law.
• Project Posters receiving funds must complete payment-provider onboarding and payout verification before receiving crowdfunding payouts.
• STAGE ZERO may restrict payout-enabled Project Posters to Stripe-supported countries and may apply additional launch-phase country restrictions, including limiting payout-enabled users to the United Kingdom where appropriate.
• STAGE ZERO may reject, suspend, remove, refund, delay, block, or review Projects, contributions, accounts, or payouts that appear to involve prohibited jurisdictions, sanctioned regions, sanctioned persons, restricted activity, illegal activity, or payment-provider rule violations.
• Users must not attempt to bypass country, sanctions, identity, payout, or payment-provider restrictions through false information, nominee accounts, intermediaries, VPNs, or any other means.

Project Posters are responsible for ensuring that their Project materials are accurate, lawful, non-misleading, and do not infringe third-party intellectual property rights.

• Users must only upload, link to, or use materials that they own, created, are licensed to use, or otherwise have permission to use.
• Users must not raise funds for Projects that rely on unauthorised use of third-party scripts, characters, brands, footage, music, images, artwork, trademarks, copyrighted works, or other protected material.
• STAGE ZERO may request evidence of rights, licences, permissions, or ownership where a Project appears to use third-party intellectual property.
• STAGE ZERO may reject, suspend, remove, or pause payments for Projects that appear to infringe intellectual property rights or where the Project Poster cannot reasonably show permission to use relevant materials.
• Rights holders may contact STAGE ZERO to report suspected infringement at hello@stagezerocreative.com.

Crowdfunding on STAGE ZERO is non-investment based.

Supporters may receive Project updates, recognition, or other non-financial acknowledgements where offered by the Project Poster, but they do not receive:

• Equity.
• Repayment rights.
• Profit share.
• Revenue share.
• Royalties.
• Securities.
• Ownership.
• Any other financial return.

A crowdfunding contribution does not guarantee that a Project will be completed, released, delivered by a specific date, meet a Supporter’s expectations, achieve a particular level of quality, or result in any particular outcome.

STAGE ZERO is currently preparing for launch and working with a small group of users on early flagship Projects.

During our launch phase, payment-enabled crowdfunding may be limited to reviewed users and Projects. We may request additional information before enabling payments, including identity information, Project details, intended use of funds, production plans, budget information, team details, location information, ownership information, intellectual-property information, and collaboration needs.

Payments on STAGE ZERO are processed through approved third-party payment providers, including Stripe where available and approved.

Depending on the payment flow, STAGE ZERO may use payment-provider tools to process supporter payments, collect platform fees, route or split payments, and pay out approved Project Posters.

Project Posters receiving crowdfunding payouts may be required to complete payment-provider onboarding and verification before receiving funds. STAGE ZERO may restrict, delay, pause, or prevent payouts where onboarding is incomplete, payout eligibility has not been confirmed, or payment-provider requirements have not been met.

Payouts may be delayed, paused, restricted, or cancelled where required to investigate suspected fraud, misleading Project information, disputes, policy violations, chargeback risk, legal issues, contribution-limit concerns, campaign-cap concerns, prohibited-jurisdiction concerns, sanctions concerns, intellectual-property concerns, or payment-provider requirements.

Creative Projects involve uncertainty. Contributions do not guarantee that a Project will be completed, released, delivered by a specific date, meet a Supporter’s expectations, or achieve any particular outcome.

Refund eligibility may depend on the Project terms, the stage of the Project, whether funds have already been paid out or committed to production costs, payment-provider rules, and applicable consumer law.

STAGE ZERO may review refund requests where there is evidence of duplicate payment, unauthorised payment, technical error, suspected fraud, misleading Project information, contribution-limit issues, campaign-cap issues, prohibited-jurisdiction issues, sanctions issues, intellectual-property issues, or a user’s failure to comply with Platform rules.

Payment disputes and chargebacks may be handled by the applicable payment provider according to its rules and processes.

More information is available in our Refund Policy.

• STAGE ZERO is not an investment platform, securities platform, lending platform, or regulated financial investment service.
• STAGE ZERO does not offer equity, repayment rights, profit share, revenue share, royalties, securities, ownership, or any other financial return.
• STAGE ZERO is not a film distributor, publisher, broadcaster, streaming service, digital-content marketplace, pay-per-view platform, download store, or creator-content monetisation platform.
• STAGE ZERO does not sell, license, monetise, or commercially exploit completed films, television programmes, videos, digital content, or third-party media content on behalf of users.
• Projects are not published films, completed media works, streaming uploads, distribution listings, content sales, pay-per-view products, downloads, or monetised media items.
• Project materials uploaded by users are used for Project discovery, promotion, collaboration, crowdfunding information, and Platform functionality only.

This Payments and Crowdfunding Policy should be read together with our Terms of Service, Refund Policy, and Acceptable Use Policy.

For payment, refund, Project-support, or infringement questions, contact:
Email: hello@stagezerocreative.com