[John Calvert]

to do a flicker make each saber into its own comp or pre comp add a white solid size of the comp over the saber.
set it to color dodge (5.5 or lower) or classic color dodge (6.0 or higher) then set the wiggler to about 15-20 cycles.
this should do the trick.
also dont color the sabers until the end.
add a black solid to the precomp as well behind the saber. then when you put it back in the main comp play with the transfer modes until you find one you like. i like screen most of the time but in some cases you will find others work well.
i also like to do a grain match to make the sabers less like an add on then a part of the actual scene.

[John Calvert]

the core is too white and stable. saber glows flicker.
not bad but not good either.

[John Calvert]

the best way is this way
https://www.theforce.net/fanfilms/postproduction/sabres/aesabertutorial.mov
https://ryanw.michaelfrisk.com/ryan-w/tutorials.html
same guy just more detail on flicker.
make sure you de-interlace your footage or problems will happen.
also lock you source footage so you dont bump it on accident,
yes this is tedious work but his effect was enough to get him a job at Lucas arts he has since left.

[John Calvert]

sorry was updating to tiger for a bit there.
should work now.

[John Calvert]

yeah the car shot sucked. i pulled it off google for the test. when you say it grows out of perspective do you mean it should lay a bit flatter?