If I only had a heart

Not the best blip, but a trial run for a shot I want to try later in the week. One of those decorative willow hearts that are everywhere at the moment. Plan is to have my lovely assistant hold it up, shine a torch at it from a distance, and get both heart and shadow in the shot.

Problems thus far arising are:
1. Not a long enough ribbon - had to crop out the heart itself as otherwise I get Debbie McGee's hand in the shot too. In fact you can still see part of his arm shadow. Not very worried - acquire longer ribbon.
2. Rubbish light source giving rubbish shadow, or one nae bad one, and a really weak ghostly one that don't match up. Better light source in mind though.
3. Heart swinging around on ribbon. I'll just have to be quick with the old shutter speed.

Any insights welcome blipsters x