Film musicians have given the cinema some of its most memorable achievements. There are the booming themes of John Williams, which make the “Indiana Jones” and “Star Wars” series instantly recognizable. There’s the pitch-perfect suspense of Bernard Herrmann on Hitchcock efforts such as “Vertigo” and “Psycho.” And there are the haunting contributions of Nino Rota on classics such as “8½” and “The Godfather.” I could go on forever.

I recently had a chance to speak to two composers who have contributed greatly to the world of film music in 2007: Mark Isham and Dario Marianelli.

Marianelli received a somewhat surprising Oscar nomination two years ago for Joe Wright’s first feature film, “Pride & Prejudice.” This year, he re-teamed with the director on “Atonement,” offering a score which makes him the arguable frontrunner for the statuette this year.

Mark Isham, who was nominated 15 years ago in this category for “A River Runs Through It,” has had a very busy year on a number of high profile features: Terry George’s “Reservation Road,” Robert Redford’s “Lions for Lambs” and Paul Haggis’s “In the Valley of Elah.” His work is being heard in cinemas now more than ever, and I’d say that a return to the Kodak seems to be in his future sooner as opposed to later.

In addition to being the composer on “Atonement,” Marianelli is responsible for the music of “Goodbye Bafana,” “Far North” and “The Brave One.” He freely remarks that he feels he’s seen more of film directors this year than his own family.

Isham also admits to being struck by the variety of the films on which he’s worked. But he cites certain similarities between them.

“‘In the Valley of Elah’ and ‘Reservation Road’ are intimate films and very emotional,” he says. “But I strove to find the unique quality.”

Isham says “Reservation Road” is about the aftermath of a tragedy, unlike “Elah,” where tragic elements are only discovered at the resolution of the film. On the other hand, he says he was surprised – especially in light of the script – at what a large score “Lions for Lambs” ended up being. He says the work kept getting bigger as the philosophy of the film emerged and the points of view started to interact, ultimately growing into a 72-piece orchestra.

Both artists speak very fondly about the unique qualities that existed in their collaborations with their directors. Marianelli told me that Joe Wright is a very unusual director in that he likes the composer to be involved while he’s still working with the script.

“He asked me to write music straight away on ‘Pride and Prejudice,’” he recalls. He admits that was, to a certain extent, necessary, as there were scenes when the score was needed during filming. But he says Wright also wanted other themes, so that he could play them for the actors, giving them a better idea of the sort of music that would accompany their acting. The very same thing, Marianelli says, happened with the duo’s collaboration on “Atonement.”

Isham has worked with both Redford and Haggis before. He believes familiarity with a director can only improve the product. “It opens up more trust,” he says. “I can go out on a limb.”

Both composers recall particular moments on their films when they truly felt challenged. Marianelli cites Cecilia and Robbie’s second parting, when she gets on the bus in a busy London street, to be such a moment on his latest film. “It had to be the most heartbreaking moment,” he says. “That was when I knew the film needed a love melody.”

Marianelli also recalls the long steady cam beach walk shot as being particularly challenging as Wright originally did not want any music at all in that sequence. “But I just ignored him and wrote it anyway,” Marianelli says, with both laughter and pride in his voice. “It had to be detached, but very moving at the same time, and it was quite a challenge to marry the two together.”

But Marianelli stresses communication as the key to any collaboration: “The most enlightened directors I’ve been working with are the ones that engage in proper dialogue. There’s a process of discovery that goes on between a director and a composer, with an actively involved film editor often making it a triangle. Conversations can become very poetic and philosophical.”

“Each film usually has its spot in the score where you know whether you’ve got it or not,” Isham says. The composer also remembers the moment at the end of “Lions for Lambs,” when the film, which had been immersed in rich concepts and philosophy at its core, gets very personal: “The music had – up until then – had to take a backseat to the words. But at that moment, Bob said to let the music and image take over.”

“In the Valley of Elah” also had its special moments for Isham. “Paul had such success with ‘Crash’ and, in a way, I went out on a limb on the choice of score on that movie,” he says. Despite knowing that, if the film had cost more, the studio would have wanted a more “traditionally emotional” score, both Isham and Haggis really thought their choice for “Crash” was the right one.

But while describing “Elah” before the start of shooting, Haggis explained that he wanted a different sort of score, so Isham chose to make the score very organic with very few electronic elements. He and Haggis both proudly feel that the score had a very intimate tone, which they both felt was perfect for the film.

But with all the pride and personal feelings of professional success, the fact of the matter remains that it is a common complaint of composers that their work is lonesome.

“We spend long hours in little rooms in front of computers,” Marianelli says.

Isham notes the lack of other creative bodies in on the process at the time of scoring: “By the time I join, the picture is usually cut together in some sort of watchable form and a lot of people have left,” he says. “You don’t want to do anything that is going to throw a monkey wrench into the works.”

Marianelli is more terrified with a blank sheet of paper than screwing up work that’s already in place. He says that once something is on the page, even if it’s the wrong thing, it will trigger the chain of thoughts and bring you closer to the ultimate goals. And in “Atonement,” he says he tried to break down the barrier between being a spectator of a film’s soundscape and being a part of a film’s soundscape in a way that he had never done before with music.

At the end of the day, Isham says he has a tremendous amount of fun with his job, having worked in the industry for 25 years and still getting new projects all the time. He recalls “The Black Dahlia” as an example of a film in recent years where he both immensely enjoyed himself and did something he had never done before professionally.

Marianelli, meanwhile, is the first to admit that his career has developed considerably over the last few years in ways he never would have expected. After scoring Irish and British character dramas for a decade, with modest resources, his career took a significant turn in 2005 when he composed “The Brothers Grimm” for Terry Gilliam, who he describes as “the opposite of minimalism.” “V for Vendetta” soon followed, and he’s found himself far away from the European style of filmmaking he is used to. But he ultimately finds this to be indicative of a greater openness to European influence on scores for Hollywood movies.

“I realize I’m generalizing in a major way but by just looking at what’s happened to myself, Alberto Iglesias and Alexandre Desplat, I can see several European composers being asked to score studio movies.”