So I have been trying to make some videos for my nephew's birthday party next month and honestly I have no idea what I am doing. I usually just use my phone to cut clips together but it is super tedious and I keep hearing about all these AI tools that are supposed to do the hard work for you. Sorry if this is a dumb question but where does someone even start with this stuff?

My logic was that if I could find a tool that automatically picks the best moments or handles the transitions, I might actually finish this before the party. I dont have a huge budget, maybe 50 bucks tops, but I really just need something that isnt impossible to learn. Im based in Ohio and just need this for a personal project, nothing fancy like a film studio.

I looked at a couple of sites but everything is full of buzzwords like generative fill and neural filters which is just confusing me more. Is there anything out there that is actually simple for a complete newbie? Or am I better off just sticking to the basic app on my phone and suffering through it...