YY_MagicKey is a very powerful keying plugin, minus the complicated settings. It was designed specifically with the keying-out of premultiplied stock elements (explosions, blood, muzzle flares, etc) in mind, and never takes a long time to set up.

Learn how to use multiple nulls and parenting to simplify an otherwise complex camera move. Then use Particular and some additional effects to dress up the scene.

A pack full of film burns, streaks, anamorphic glares and short streaks. Excellent for Indy films, transistions, stylistic music videos and much much more.

After Effects lights can be moved around in 3D space but a lens flare effect can only move in 2D space on the X and Y axis.

A practical application of a layer space transform.
Not very new, but still very useful.
by Dan Ebberts's resource for After Effects scripting and expressions

Motion designer Harry Frank shows how to breath new life or make a retro look with standard After Effects Lens Flare by using Shape Layers and Trapcode Shine.

Here is a project file that adds an anamorphic stripe and star around the standard AE lens flare.

With this preset you can cause the opacity of a layer to control the brightness of a "Lens Flare".